Heroes Eternity
by Ritzbitz8
Summary: In a postApocalypic future, evil XDigimon called The Apostles seek to rule the land. Our heroine: Mia, is a new type of Tamer with an XDigimon whom must overcome these foes, an unaccepting society, and a strange darkness that threatens to consume her.
1. Prologue

-1 **"From light comes darkness. Purest light falling into the most tainted form of evil. Consuming the heart until it is no more... and the brain slowly follows... all that is left is a killing machine. Soon every being shall follow my example." - DivineMachinedramon X**

"Who believes in Prophecies? Who believes in the past?"

"Not me."

"The words speak from those of the past, you fool. Those who gave birth to us and created our world!"

**"I've walked the path of light and darkness and enjoyed both. But to walk both paths... one shall sway you. The darkness calls with more force and is much more alluring. The path of darkness shall sway all..." - Sivamon X**

A metallic fist clenched in anger, the steel of his fingers rubbing against his steel palm as he was forced to listen to such unjust declarations. The world would not fall to darkness... he wouldn't let it.

"Lord Dartz protects us humans! We won't fall to your insane ambitions!"

"For someone qualified to lead such a massive army, you sure are stupid. All humans are evil... moreso than us X-Digimon!"

"You X-Digimon will never win! Humans... and Digimon... together their hearts are more powerful than you! I have heard cries that speak the opposite of what you follow... the past doesn't determine anything... the future holds the true mysterious answer!"

**"There is no need to falter before the darkness. With confidence and purity, it has no effect. From battling darkness for millennia... an outcome will one day be determined on the hearts of men and Digimon." - X-Omnidramon**

Blue eyes stared at his robotic foe, whom stood as an agent of good. A human fused with a Digimon... a process called Bio-Merging... in order to create a warrior known as HiAndromon. HiAndromon was a Mega level Digimon... the highest evolutionary form. But in the evil one's eyes... he had one fault.

"You're not an X-Digimon. You're not strong. You cannot win."

"You're wrong..." the HiAndromon fusion spoke while staring daggers at him, "I am a human and a Digimon! I am the leader of all Tamers under the command of Lord Dartz!"

"And what does that prove? Two hearts does not equal twice the power..."

**"To rely on others is foolishness. I cast aside my filthy partner forever ago and have embraced true power by evolving on my own. The darkness blossoms best alone..." - Daemon X**

"SaintMachinedramon X..." HiAndromon began, staring him down.

SaintMachinedramon X was a powerful-looking warrior indeed. His six angel wings spanned out far from his body, with circuitry running along them and sprouting metallic spines through the angel feathers. The metallic cross on his chest was his defining symbol... and his blue eyes and some long blonde hair were visible through the visor of his Machinedramon head-shaped helmet. He was the spitting image of his birthgiver.

**"To run is to give up on yourself. The darkness will chase you and never let go. Spiritual power runs through all of us... harness it to your heart's strength... and break through all obstacles." - WarSylphymon**

"... my army will break through yours! I will break through you! This fight will end the war!"

"This fight proves nothing. So you've finally confronted me... my **Eight Apostles** would avenge me even if I were to fall... which I can assure you will not happen today." 

An explosion rocked the earth they were standing on but neither Digimon shook from the force. Some of SaintMachinedramon X's soldiers had destroyed a tank on the human's side... but more mechas and Tamers were fighting back at them. None of the surrounding war was affecting the two generals facing off, however.

**"War is coming. An effort must be made to ensure the right side wins. My companions and I have survived through many years to help ensure that will happen... but we need all of your help too! Rally and fight the Darkness!" - Nuriamon**

"I'm sick of listening to you! You end today!" HiAndromon yelled, moving his right leg back and lowering his body, assuming a defensive stance.

SaintMachinedramon X smirked and held his arm up at HiAndromon, with a cannon latched onto his wrist, "Show me this power of heart you've jabbered on about."

HiAndromon aimed his cannon at the angel/machine hybrid. He may have the X-Virus... but there would still be no giving up! HiAndromon gritted his teeth together and activated the firing mechanism.

"ATOMIC RAY!!!" he screamed, firing out a yellowish beam of energy at the divine Digimon. SaintMachinedramon X took the hit and was knocked back a bit but then righted himself and prepared his own cannon attack.

"HOLY CANNON!!!"

The pure white holy blast was much more massive than HiAndromon's was and HiAndromon leapt upward to avoid it. He crossed his arms over his chest and he began a freefall toward the mechanical angel.

"COPY PASTE!!!" he shouted, suddenly splitting into two versions of himself. SaintMachinedramon X gasped in alarm and was smashed in the face by two metallic fists, one from each HiAndromon. He fell backwards and slid along the ground on his back, grunting heavily as his body slid over rocks and other paraphenalia.

"You--!"

"It gets worse!" HiAndromon stated, cutting him off, "ATOMIC RAY!!!"

SaintMachinedramon X growled in annoyance and slapped the attack away harmlessly into the air. Suddenly, a battallion of jet mecha flew overhead, dropping bombs at SaintMachinedramon! He spread his six wings and flew backward to avoid the strike but one jet flew down and a girl leapt our of it, landing next to HiAndromon. She was decked out in a blue and gray mecha suit, as was the standard for all of Lord Dartz's warriors.

"Mia! What are you doing here?!" HiAndromon exclaimed, suddenly taking a worried tone, "I thought you weren't going to be part of this attack!"

"The big man changed his mind and sent the air fleet in... I had to help you, dad!" the girl argued back.

Her features weren't really visible inside the mecha suit... but SaintMachinedramon X had already figured out how much this HiAndromon must care about his daughter. The mecha suits were developed strong... but his warrior skills surpassed what Lord Dartz's minions were used to dealing with.

"In other words, the girl's an idiot... you have no idea who you're dealing with!" SaintMachinedramon X screamed, lunging at them. HiAndromon growled and met him in mid-air, tackling him to the ground.

"You! Leave! My! Daughter! Alone!" he screamed out in-between bashing SaintMachinedramon X's face in with repeated blows from his forearms. SaintMachinedramon snarled and spat out some blood as he grabbed HiAndromon's arm and hurled him away.

"I will not be beaten by Lord Dartz's insolent defense force! And the Mecha Squad is even more pathetic than the Tamer Squad! I'm going to vaporize you, little girl!"

The girl in the mecha suit fired off a round of missiles at SaintMachinedramon X, but upon impact all they did was make him grunt a little. She gasped in despair, realizing how weak her suit really was... and she stared at the seemingly immortal X-Digimon in fear.

"I can't... even touch him..."

"SAINT CROSS!!!" the evil Digimon screamed, folding his arms over the cross emblem on his chest and charging up a massive amount of holy energy into it. Mia began to sweat and stepped backward in her mecha suit. She clenched her eyes shut tightly as the angel-machine launched a huge wave of holy energy at her.

_I'm so dead! Goodbye dad..._

A wave of light washed around her... but none of it struck her. Almost afraid to, she opened her eyes to see a shadow blocking the holy energy from hitting her. It was shaped exactly like HiAndromon... her father.

"... NO!!!" she screamed out as HiAndromon collapsed to his knees, totally charred from the blast. Her father's eyes closed as he tried to moan out the first syllable of her name... but then he fell onto the ground with a large clinking noise from the impact of the metal armor. He unfused into a human man laying on the ground a gear-like Hagurumon also collapsed.

"D-dad... Hagurumon..." she managed to choke out as she began sobbing. She then turned to the Apostle Lord, "YOU BASTARD!!!"

She fired off another round of missiles from her mecha suit at him in a rage. But the large burst of light had attracted some attention and other mechas and Tamers were heading their way. Two large Tamers stood out, one riding on the dinosaur MetalGreymon and the other riding atop a half-mechanical WarGrowlmon.

"Mia!!!" they both screamed with concern, apparently knowing her. Then they saw her father laying on the ground and realized why she was there, "Commander Ausa!!!"

"Grr..." SaintMachinedramon growled as he avoided both Mia's missiles attacks and took to the air. A plane came at him but he grabbed it by the wing and hurled it down at Mia, "burn in hell, wench!!!"

MetalGreymon landed in front of Mia and took the brunt of the plane crashing into him. His Tamer was knocked off of his head however and crashed down on the ground next to Mia. Thankfully he was decked out in a mecha suit also and was easily able to survive the brunt of the hit.

"Tom! Alex!" she cried out for her friends and her voice gave away that she was choking on tears, "make him pay!!!"

"Done, sweetheart," the suit indicated as Tom responded, looking up at his partner, "MetalGreymon, attack!"

"Gladly."

The one identified as Alex leapt off WarGrowlmon and landed on the other side of Mia, also seeming to like this attacking idea, "We can end the war right here, WarGrowlmon!"

WarGrowlmon stayed up in the air and glared at the human-shaped SaintMachinedramon X... they had him out-done in size, "I'll do my best Alex!" "Commander Savenoff and Commander Jameson might get mad at us for engaging the enemy leader though..." Alex whined.

"Who cares!? This is for Commander Ausa!" Tom shouted, "go get him!"

"GIGA BLASTER!!!" MetalGreymon bellowed, firing two large missiles out of his chest-plate. They were joined by two crimson colored beams coming from WarGrowlmon's nuclear reactor, "ATOMIC BLASTER!!!"

Both attacks struck SaintMachinedramon X and pushed him upward into the air. He chuckled and yelled something down at Mia, "Mia Ausa, I know your name now. I have been forewarned... I already know your destiny! You'll see me again... oh you'll see me again!"

SaintMachinedramon X seemed to disppear... and the attacks from MetalGreymon and WarGrowlmon flew off into the sky. The Digimon and all three humans stared in wonder.

"Did we... destroy him...?" Alex wondered, speaking slowly.

"I... don't know," Tom replied, also unsure as his communicator started to beep. He clicked it and a commanding female voice came out of it.

All units! This is Commander Savenoff! The X-Digimon forces appear to be retreating. Mop up as many as you can while they try to run!

"I want to nuke some X-Digimon scum!" WarGrowlmon shouted, getting worked up, "then I want to eat!"

"Me too," MetalGreymon agreed, stomping his foot down, "let's get a move on, twerps!"

"We better go mop," Alex said, "you wait here Mia... for now."

Alex and Tom leapt on their mighty Digimon and flew off, leaving Mia alone with her father's body. Mia fell to her knees, wondering what the hell SaintMachinedramon X was talking about. She threw her helmet off and let her blue hair drape down out of it, along with many tears that splashed off of the ground.

**"The X-Digimon leaders are heartless scum! They want to hurt you... they want to kill you! The must be persecuted and destroyed... them and all their Apostles!" - Lord Dartz**

"X-Digimon... I'll destroy every last one of you!!!" Mia growled angrily, pulling the dirt into her palm as she clenched a fist, "I will avenge my father!!!"

Little did Mia know that her life and the life of those around her was about to change even more drastically. It all begins here... Heroes Eternity!


	2. 1: Public Enemy

Esperanza: the center of all human activity. It could be considered the capital city of this end of the world. Surrounded by huge protective rust-colored walls and covered by defensive systems, it was practically a New York-sized fortress. Visible from all sides was Lord Dartz's central tower, where he both lived and controlled the city from. Next to it was another tower almost equal in stature, the Military Base.

Someone was looking through high-tech binoculars and surveying this area from the desolate wasteland outside the city. He had short and rather chaotic-styled spiky deep red hair with some black in it too. He was wearing a blue jumpsuit, obviously meaning he belonged to some sort of organization.

There was a buzzing sound around him, due to the fact that his partner: Tentomon X, was flying low in the air around him. He looked mostly like a normal Tentomon, except his green antennae crossed over each other like an X now and he had four talons instead of two. His shell also had black spikes on it.

"Tell me again, Ray..." the boy spoke into his headseat, "how and why am I going into Esperanza?"

I've got the how covered, don't you worry, a boy's voice on the headset spoke back, as for why, the commander has been given an anonymous tip that a new X-Digimon is going to be born... and it'll pick a partner in that town.

"Where exactly does he get these tips?"

I don't know, but--

"How come I have to do this stupid--"

You work best by yourself--

"I didn't want to work today, you should've--"

I know you didn't, would you quit interr--

"I will interrupt you until the end of time and beyond that!"

There was silence. The boy with the Tentomon looked over at his partner and sighed. Ray annoyed him so much.

"We HAVE to listen to him, you know," Tentomon X said, landing next to his Tamer, "will you ever stop arguing?"

"Don't YOU start," the red-haired boy said, glaring at Tentomon, "okay fine, Ray, what did you want to say?"

The partner is going to be a girl. Apprehend them both before the Apostles know of their existence. I'll give you more info as it becomes availiable.

"A girl, eh Ray? Now I'm interested..."

"This hurts already..." Tentomon X sighed.

**Heroes Eternity, Chapter 01: The X-Factor**

Mia was sitting in a rather roomy office inside the Military base. She was out of uniform, wearing only a pink sleeveless t-shirt and a pair of black jeans. Her hands were clasped in-between her legs and she was hanging her head and staring at them, letting her long blue hair drape down over her face.

An older woman sat across the desk from Mia. She was wearing a brown, green, and gold uniform, the colors of the army. Her black hair was done up behind her head in a bun, she was obviously a very well-kept person.

"Let met get this straight, Mia," the woman began in a skeptical tone, "you're quitting the army?"

Mia slowly nodded, "That's right, Colonel Savenoff."

"But you're one of our best mech soldiers..."

"Yeah well that didn't help me save my father, did it!?" Mia snapped at her, giving the colonel a mean look, "stupid damn X-Digimon... what do they want from us?! Why do they keep killing us!?"

"I... don't know," Colonel Savenoff replied with disgust, "but we can't let them walk all over us... you have to stay in the army! Your father would want you to..."

"Don't throw that in my face..." Mia muttered, "I'll only stay if you can give me my own Digimon partner... like my dad had..."

"I... can't. The Digimon system has been infected with the X-Virus... we aren't supposed to produce any more Digimon until we can get it fixed. You know having an X-Digimon partner would be treason."

Mia stood up and looked away from her commander, "Well then I'm gone. But I vow I'm going to destroy all the X-Digimon... somehow..."

Mia exited Colonel Savenoff's office before her former superior could even get in another word. Her friends Tom and Alex immediately leapt to attention as soon as she walked into the hall. They ran from their spots leaning on the wall and went to block her path.

"Mia, we know you're upset..." Tom began.

Alex continued from where he left off, "... but we really want to help you! You can talk to us!"

Alex and Tom, pretty much her only friends in the army. They were both wearing their army uniforms and feeling sorry for her because of her father's death.

Tom had short brown hair and had the largest crush on her... it got pretty annoying actually. But she tolerated him anyway. He was a good friend when she needed one and lots of fun to hang out with too.

Alex had black spiky hair and was a bit shorter than Tom. He spelt his full name Alexzander and she could never figure out why. Alex was a bit more likeable and was fun to make fun of and beat up when she was bored.

But right now she didn't feel like seeing either of them.

"Get out of my way," she muttered, not looking directly at either of them.

"Commander Ausa was a great guy, he really was!" Tom said to her, "but he wouldn't want you sulking like this!"

"Come on dude, he just passed away yesterday," Alex said, shoving Tom a little, "let her have a bit of space."

"Watch who you're shoving!" Tom said, shoving Alex back, "moron."

"Jerk," Alex muttered.

"I quit the army," Mia said flat-out. Tom and Alex both froze and glanced at her like she was crazy. She didn't move, just let them make their own assumptions.

"You did WHAT?!" Tom exclaimed.

"But how will we fight for justice now?!" Alex wondered.

"And we haven't even gone out on a date yet!" Tom shouted, "you know you wanna..."

"You're talking to her, right?" Alex asked.

Tom glared at him, "... yes."

Mia started to walk past them, "Sorry boys. I'm gone."

"Isn't there anything I can do?" Tom pleaded, "you gotta stay, Mia! You hold this trio together!"

Mia stopped and glanced down at the floor where their partners: Agumon and Guilmon, were sitting. She smirked and turned back to Tom, "You could give me Agumon."

"What?!"

"Come on, Tom. You know how much I want a Digimon partner..." she said in a sweet tone, moving seductively toward him, "give it to me, big boy."

Tom started to sweat and get all nervous, "Uh... uh..."

"You aren't actually considering it, are you?" Alex asked, staring at Tom oddly.

"No!" Tom shouted, running away from Mia and picking up Agumon, "Agumon's my partner!"

"That just makes you sound gay," Alex commented from behind him. Tom twitched a little.

"Bah! What do you know! Attack him, Agumon!" Tom shouted, turning and pointing Agumon in Alex's direction. Alex flinched and Guilmon tackled both Tom and Agumon to protect his partner.

Alex stared at the three of them on the ground and sweat-dropped at the idiocy. He glanced up but noticed something, "Hey... Mia's gone..."

"She must've left while we were fighting," Tom realized, pushing Guilmon and Agumon off of him, "I feel so sorry for her..."

"Me too..." Alex sighed, "I guess we just have to give her time."

"Yes you should," another voice spoke. It belonged to an older man. He stepped into the room, giving off a bit of a dominating aura as he entered. He was known as Nathan Klentz, and he was one of Lord Dartz's right-hand men. He had to be pushing forty but he still managed to look fairly young. No one really knew much about him except for maybe Lord Dartz.

"Hey it's that Klentz guy... what are you doing here?" Alex asked.

"Hello Thomas, hello Alexzander," he said to them, "why are you two here?"

"... we're not sure," Tom said, "should we leave?"

"Yes, I'd like you both to leave," Klentz commanded them, "I need to speak to Colonel Savenoff, is she in?"

"No, she just left," Alex answered.

Klentz seemed to smile a bit, "Oh... I see. Well, you two get moving, I hear there's an important military meeting happening in the war room soon to celebrate the victory."

"Man if I ever get my hands on that SaintMachinedramon X... he's going to pay for what he did to Commander Ausa!" Tom shouted, clenching his fists in front of him, "all those X-Digimon scum have to pay!"

Klentz gave Tom an almost angry look but managed to maintain his cool demeanor. He simply smiled and said to Tom, "Well... don't hurt yourself."

Klentz walked past them towards Colonel Savenoff's office and Alex and Tom began to leave. Alex leaned over whispered to Tom, "That Klentz guy creeps me out... but he's the one who handles Prince Serph, right?"

"I don't know but your breath stinks..." Tom muttered back.

When they were gone, Klentz used his security pass to get into Savenoff's office. He walked into the dark office and sat down at her computer, the blue start-up screen of the monitor being the only light to reflect off of his pale face. He began to punch in some keys...

"Now for Commander Ausa's daughter to get what she wanted and so much more. Time to see what good a new X-Digimon can really do..."

"Ugh," Mia grunted. Usually she wasn't like this... she was more carefree and fun. She liked to let loose a lot and definitely liked beating people up, stupid boys who liked to hit on her.

She remembered how after going out and getting plastered with her friends at her 18th birthday, some guy tried to pick her up the same time her dad did. That guy would probably never walk again. Her dad was very protective of her, so in turn she would always try to rebel and let loose... mostly because it was nice to see her dad defend her against everything that went wrong.

She would really miss him.

"I think I need a drink..." she sighed, taking her hand off the cold wall and turning to head back onto the street. Suddenly she heard something behind her. If someone was trying to sneak up on her, they obviously weren't aware of her extensive training.

The footsteps got closer, with still no warning of whether it was friendly or not. They sounded tiny... which made her even more suspicious. She narrowed her eyes and cursed her blue hair hanging over her shoulder, which prevented her from discreetly checking behind.

They got even closer and Mia wondered if it was some bastard working for SaintMachinedramon X. She wouldn't be taken by surprise!

"Hiya!" she cried, flipping around and kicking up into air. But to her surprise, her foot didn't connect with anything and she ended up knocking herself onto her butt. She looked up to see a small Digimon with long, floppy ears hanging down at it's sides. It was pretty cute... but it had one thing on it she didn't like... an 'X' emblem on her forehead, with the top parts of the X connecting to her ears.

"Mia Ausa?" the Digimon asked in what was a surprisingly older-sounding feminine voice, "I'm Lopmon X, your new Digimon partner."

Mia was wide-eyed out of both surprise and more surprise. She wanted a partner so badly... she had for long. This almost seemed like fate but...

"... but you're an X-Digimon..."

Lopmon X leaned her head to the side and narrowed her beady little black eyes, "And your point...?"

"My point is you killed my father!!"

Mia leapt to her feet and bolted out onto the street, running away from what she just saw. After what X-Digimon did to her country... her people... her father! They were tyrants, cold-blooded and evil! Warped by that bloody X-Virus! She wouldn't join up with one of them... no matter how surprisingly convienant this was!

"Mia, wait!" a voice cried out from behind her. Obviously Lopmon was chasing her. She glanced behind herself to see Lopmon had flapped her large ears out and bounded into the air, using her ears like a parachute to glide herself forward, "just listen to me!"

"I don't want to hear what you have to say! Get away from me or I'll call security and have you vaporized!"

Lopmon sighed as she watched her supposed Tamer try to run away, "You're not going to listen and I'm sorry about this but... BLAZING ICE!!!"

Lopmon fired a stream of ice from her mouth at Mia's legs, freezing them and most of the street around her, rendering her unable to move. Mia practically fell forward but the ice held her up... and she was not too happy about that.

"Are you nuts!?" Mia exclaimed, trying to turn and give Lopmon X a harsh look. but Lopmon landed in front of her and Mia sighed, turning to face her, "you're really lucky I'm not armed."

"Mia, just stop and listen to me. How could I have possibly killed your father? I was just created!"

"Created with the X-Virus in you!" Mia shouted from her frozen standpoint, "every X-Digimon I've heard of has become a terrorist! They join up with the Apostles and attack humans and Digimon alike trying to 'reclaim' this world!"

"Well they don't sound like the bad guys at all then, but that's not what I want to debate with you," Lopmon X said, holding up her tiny arms so as to gesture to Mia that she came in peace, "look, I was chosen to be with you because we're compatible! I didn't choose to have this virus however!"

"We are not going to be compatible, I can tell you that much," a defiant Mia snapped back, "we're not partners! ... damn Tom and Alex ruining that term for me..."

Lopmon rolled her eyes and decided to try and reason with her again, "But I really need your help..."

Mia stopped verbally attacking her and raised her eyebrow in confusion, "Help with what...?"

"I... just stop being a racist and hear me out, okay!? I really need you!"

Mia managed to kick her legs out of the ice encasing her and wrapped her arms around herself, it was cold enough already without that. She stared down at Lopmon, never having been called a racist before. Lopmon X was definitely looking hurt and Mia started to feel back.

"Look... uhm... Lopmon. I just can't see this working... why would I get chosen to have an X-Digimon partner if I am so against them? And why don't I have a D-Volver?"

Lopmon cast her eyes down at the ground in sorrow, "I... I don't know... but..."

Suddenly a third voice cut into their conversation from above. A male voice.

"Are you Mia Ausa?" the voice asked, as if it was demanding an answer. Mia and Lopmon both glanced up, wondering who was so bold as to interrupt them.

"Gee, I'm popular today..." Mia muttered. In the dim light only given off by the streetlamps, it was hard to see the speaker. It was definitely an average-sized male and he did appear to have a Digimon flying around him.

"Mia..." Lopmon X whispered to her, "that's definitely an X-Digimon up there with that guy."

"That isn't helping my views much..." Mia whispered back. They then both focused their attention up to the top of the low building where their speakers were located. Somehow they didn't give off a friendly vibe.

"Well? Are you or aren't you?" the voice asked again.

"And what if I am?'

"Then I'm afraid I'll have to take away you and what my partner is reading as an X-Digimon away for a while. Now be a good girl and cooperate."

"I have a very large urge to punch you in the face," Mia responded, "let me deal with my own problems."

The boy leapt off of the roof and landed easily on the sidewalk in front of her. He had red hair with some black in it, obviously black being his natural hair color. It was the same guy seen talking at the beginning of the chapter.

"Unfortunately for you, I'm not here to care about you or your problems," he responded, "I'm Lance, a member of the Radical Dreamers."

"Those retards who think they're so cool because they 'think outside the box'? You guys attack both us and the Apostles for no reason... you just suck!"

"Wow she's a mouthy one," Tentomon X commented, buzzing down next to Lance and hovering above him. Mia and Lopmon X glanced over at her partner, realizing there could be danger if they tried anything.

"We don't suck, you have no idea what we're trying to accomplish!" Lance snapped back, "we want to work toward a future where Digimon, X-Digimon, humans, and even Digi-humans can live in peace together. We fight for more of a just cause than Lord Dartz's army!"

"Okay, my views don't change very easily and I'm getting a lot of them forced on me this hour, you idiot," Mia growled, "I'm dealing with major stress right now and I don't need you! I don't need ANY of this!!!"

"Mia..." Lopmon sighed, staring at her would-be partner, "I promise I'll try to help make things better..."

"Why!? You aren't my Digimon!" Mia shouted at Lopmon X, turning on her too now, "everyone just leave me alone!!!"

Mia backed away from them all and gripped her head with her hands in frustration, _Ugh! Why are all of these freaks suddenly attracted to me!? I should've just gone with Tom and Alex..._

"She's not even going to be a threat to us, she's obviously crazy. Immobilize them, Tentomon!" Lance ordered.

"Done and done," Tentomon X agreed, taking off into the air, "today's weather calls for lightning! SUPER SHOCKER!!!"

Tentomon X fired an electricity bolt from his green antennae down at Lopmon X and Mia, striking the ground between the two of them and making them yelp in fright. Lopmon gritted her teeth and glanced over at Mia, who was still in the middle of a freak-out.

_I've caught Mia in a really bad time... maybe I can prove myself to her by taking out these psychos..._

Lopmon X leapt onto a fire escape of the building near her and swiftly scaled up it until she was around Tentomon X's height. She faced her fellow Rookie X-Digimon.

"Really? Because I swear it was going to snow today! BLAZING ICE!!!"

Tentomon X flew to the left to dodge Lopmon's attack and glanced back at her, "We aren't really going to do this are we? You won't beat me, noob!"

"We'll see who's the noob! I have to protect my new partner! Hiya!" Lopmon X cried out, leaping off the railing and tackling Tentomon X in mid-air! The two of them began to clash...

On the ground floor, Lance began to approach Mia, who was staring wide-eyed at Lopmon fighting Tentomon. She had totally forgotten Lance was there.

_Why is Lopmon so willing to protect me even though I shunned her and lashed out at her? I've seen Agumon and Guilmon do the same thing for their Tamers... and Hagurumon for my dad... is this the real bond of having a Digimon partner? Even if it is... and X-Digimon...?_

"You may as well come with me, Mia," Lance spoke, interrupting her train of thought, "you'll be prosecuted just for having an X-Digimon partner by your tolitarian government. Leave it behind and join the Radical Dreamers!"

"That's why you're here?! To convince me to join your band of misfits!?"

"We're not misfits!" Lance shouted back at her, apparently really touchy about the subject, "and no, that's not why I'm here. I was simply ordered to capture the both of you... but I think you're cute and would rather see you serve a purpose."

"Well I'm flattered but you're not getting me either way! ... and look at my face when I'm yelling at you!"

Lance sighed and reached into his equipment backpack for something, "I really didn't want to do this..."

"And so you won't!" Mia shouted, leaping and kicking him in the stomach, causing him to drop the concussion grenade he'd pulled out. She kicked it away and then turned again, slugging him in the face! She caught him by his backpack strap as he fell and pulled it off, hurling it away.

"Ow!" he grunted, "you can really fight!"

"Yeah, I'm in the army, nimrod!"

Lance smirked a little while rubbing his face, "Is that so...? Well that will make this all the more interesting then!"

Lance threw a punch at her but she caught it, "Oh please, I can school you."

"Can you?" he asked, kicking his foot upward between her legs and flipping her over his shoulder so she landed hard on her back on the street! She groaned and rolled over onto her side.

"I'm combat trained too!"

"Lovely."

Up in the air, Tentomon X fired another round of electricity at Lopmon X, who was leaping from roof to roof avoiding it while firing back her blasts of ice when she got the chance. Neither Digimon seemed to have a clear advantage over the other.

"Your persistence is futile! I'm not getting tired at all!" Tentomon X taunted her while flying around madly blasting at her with his Super Shocker, "but you seem to be wearing down."

"Shove it, bug-boy!" Lopmon X retorted, "BLAZING ICE!!!"

Lopmon barely got her attack out before one of Tentomon's lightning bolts hit right in front of her, sending her smacking into the small wall of the roof. Tentomon flew and hovered above her, figuring he'd finished her.

"Out of icy breath already? I'm disappointed."

"I'm full of surprises," Lopmon X told him, ripping a piece of metal pipe off of the wall with her large ears and flinging it at Tentomon. It smacked him right in the face, causing him to lose balance.

"Ahh, what the--?!"

"BUNNY CLAW!!!" Lopmon yelled, leaping forward and giving Tentomon a good slug. He slid along his shell on the roof until hitting the other side. He groaned, really dizzy from the assault.

"Lance..." he moaned, "Digivolve me..."

Lance looked up from where he was with Mia, "No way, we'll never keep this discreet if you're huge Champion form is stomping about. Here, I'll transfer some of my stamina to you!"

Lance pulled out his sleek, white Digivice called a D-Volver and aimed it in Tentomon's direction. He pressed down a button on the top of it and a tingling sensation went through his body, giving some of his energy to Tentomon.

"The energy I give to Tentomon will be amplified," he told Mia, "so don't think I'm going to be weak now."

"Heh," Mia groaned, pulling herself off the ground, "you have one glaring weakness..."

"And what's that?" Lance asked, crossing his arms and looking at her condescendingly. Mia pushed her hair out of her beautiful face and glanced at Lance with it, she was wearing a look of determination.

"Your arrogance for one!!!" she shouted, forcing herself to stand toward Lance and shoving him backward, catching him by surprise, she then kicked him straight in the crotch, "and your crotch for two!!!"

Lance cried out in pain, gripped his groin and fell forward. Mia stood over him, triumphant, "You men are all the-- aah!"

Lance grabbed her by the leg and whipped her into a nearby alley, keeping one hand on his damaged groin, "Cheap shot... but I'm tough enough to take it..."

He slowly got up and looked down the alleyway at her, "No more playing around!"

"No more playing around!" Tentomon echoed him up on the rooftop, "you may have beginner's lucky, but Lance and I are the best at what we do!"

"You must all really suck then," Lopmon muttered, assuming a fighting stance. Tentomon got a little annoyed and took flight again.

"My partner and I have shared stamina! Something you can't do! Now witness how powerful that is!" Tentomon shouted at her, "LIGHTNING BOMB!!!"

Tentomon X fired a rather large ball of energy at her from the tips of her two talons and it smashed her good, sending electrical jolts through her body as she was flung off the roof by it. She bashed into the wall of another building and fell onto her face on the street.

"Okay..." she moaned, still face down, "I see what you mean..."

Lopmon X grunted as she tried to push herself off of the ground but failed to and fell back onto her soft little stomach. She grimaced at her pure weakness, _Ugh... I can't lose to this punk... I can't let Mia think I'm worthless..._

Mia groaned and stood up from where Lance threw her, staring at her would-be captor in annoyance, _Ugh, I can't lose to this punk... I'm not going to get captured by some group of freaks..._

"Lance! What do you really want with me?!" she demanded, trying to sound tough again, "you were sent to capture me and you don't even know why?!"

"Our leader must want you for some reason... he doesn't like Tamers with X-Digimon," Lance explained, "sure, I have one but that's because he got to me before the Apostles could. They like to prey on newborn X-Digimon and convert them into their followers."

"I'm too strong for that!" Lopmon shouted, still laying on the ground, "I was born to be with my new partner and I won't abandon her for anything!"

"We won't take that chance," Lance said, "Tentomon, finish her off. If Mia continues to resist we'll just take the Digimon... I don't want to fight such a cute girl anymore."

_They're going to take Lopmon!?_ Mia thought in distress, _wait, since when do I care so much!?_

Tentomon X prepared to fire more electricity at the fallen Lopmon and Mia wasn't going to have it. Lance's eyes were on them too... this was her chance!

"That's it, Lance! You've totally pissed me off now! Leave Lopmon alone!" Mia screamed, charging at Lance. Before he knew what happened, she tackled him and forced him onto his stomach, kneeling on his back.

"Ugh... get off me!" Lance grunted.

"Shut up!" Mia threatened, placing her hand on the back of his head. She turned to the Digimon, "Tentomon X! If you don't want me to bash your buddy's face into the ground, you're gonna call off your attack!"

Tentomon hesitated and stopped his attack. Mia smiled, _They may be jerks... but they care about each other too... I guess X-Digimon can be good partners..._

Suddenly the Mia's right hand began to glow and a D-Volver materialized out of thin air into it. She gasped and stared at it, realizing it meant Lopmon X was truly her partner. She smiled and glanced at the bunny Digimon, both of them exchanging a look of understanding.

"Alright, Lopmon!" Mia shouted, still kneeling on the fallen Lance, "let's try what they did! Take some of my energy!"

Mia pressed the button on top of her D-Volver and a nearly invisible beam of light shot straight into Lopmon, rejuvinating her. She picked herself up fast and bounded toward Tentomon X, who didn't know what to do!

"Uhm, Lance?!" Tentomon X exclaimed in fright, "what do I do?!"

"BUNNY PUNCH!!!" Lopmon X screamed, smashing him with a fist full of enhanced power. Tentomon X screamed and smashed through a nearby window, being knocked out of the battle. The alarms inside the building started to go off.

"Oh now you've done it," Lance muttered, "we need to get out of here before security comes!"

"Lance, darling," Mia began, smiling sweetly and looking down at him, "don't ever #$ with me again!"

Mia bashed his face into the ground, knocking him out cold. She then motioned for Lopmon X to follow her with her arm and ran down a nearby alleyway.

"Woo, that was a rush!" Mia shouted as they ran, "I think I'll be able to get used to this!"

"Really?" Lopmon X asked, her hopes getting up, "yay! I'm so happy to hear that!"

"Yeah, just-- whoa," Mia moaned as she stopped running and began gripping her head, "I feel dizzy."

"Because you gave some of your stamina to me in the battle... it's not like it comes for free," Lopmon explained, "you should recover quickly though."

"I just don't know what to do now... if anyone finds out I have an X-Digimon partner... I'm going to get in a lot of trouble..."

"Maybe we should lay low for a bit."

"That would never have occured to me," Mia muttered sarcastically, "come on, let's go to my house..."

"So what'd you think of those crazies?" Lopmon asked her.

"Those dorks? Well Lance was kind of cute... I wouldn't mind beating him up again."

"Tentomon was kinda creepy..."

"He's a big bug, what do you expect?"

"Why aren't there any hot guy Digimon?!"

"What about Angemon?"

"Oh yeah..."

Mia smiled as she picked up her new Digimon partner and began to walk home with her. X-Digimon or not, things had finally began to look up... perhaps it wouldn't be impossible to get over her father's death after all...

As they walked away, someone was watching them from a rooftop, cloaking himself in the darkness of the night. It was obviously a Digimon wearing a cloak... but not much else could be seen in the night. He spoke to himself in a deep voice.

"Hmm... my little set-up has yielded what may be a very powerful little pawn. But something is... amiss about this Lopmon X... I feel like I've met her before..."

The Digimon simply chuckled to himself and turned away.

"I'll have to keep an eye on you Mia Ausa... for the glory of the Apostles!"

Lance groaned as he rubbed his face, which was still aching in pain. He and Tentomon X were walking away from Esperanza slowly, still reeling from their defeat.

"That was all your fault, Tentomon."

"Mine!? I would've won if you didn't get beat up by a girl!"

"So did you!"

"Yes but mine is more understandable, I won't get made fun of for it," Tentomon explained, "and I don't have a broken face."

"I think she broke my nose..." he whined, "damn she was something..."

"Oh god, here we go..." Tentomon X sighed.

Dude, she kicked your ass, the voice known as Ray spoke over the radio, you two just get back to base and forget about her for now.

"Forget about a totally hot, awesome chick that kicked my ass? She won't be off my mind for a looong time," Lance responded, staring into the sky, "I think I'm in love."

"No you aren't," Tentomon X sighed, "you always say that..."

She bashed your face into the ground!

"Why does that turn me on even more?"

Tentomon and Ray both just stopped talking to Lance and the rest of his trek back to the base was in silence. But Lance was determined to see her again... and next time things would be different.

Next Chapter: Mia and Lopmon X try to figure out a way to live without being persecuted for it. Mia then encounters a new friend... the son of Lord Dartz himself: Serph Dartz! But when rabid Tyrannomon X crash their party, is there any way Serph can help his newfound friends survive the assault?


	3. 2: The Second Born

In Esperanza, one man governs every human who lives within the protective walls of the massive city. That man is Lord Dartz, the man who inherited the empire from a long line of Dartz's, rebelling against the X-Digimon for approximately 120 years.

All feared his name, as his military was among the most fearsome in the world. He himself was even a veteran Tamer, able to fight and destroy an entire army by himself. He rarely got his hands dirty however… only when he really wanted to do it himself.

Lord Dartz implied the anti X-Digimon rule… anyone with an X-Digimon partner is to be cast out of the city and never allowed to return. A great deal of racism is exacted toward any X-Digimon, not just the evil ones thanks to Lord Dartz. As far as he's concerned, the sooner they're all vanquished, the better.

And rhat's exactly what he's trying to discover how to do today…

"Throw it in the tube."

"Yes, Lord Dartz."

A scientist decked out in a white coat and wearing thick goggles hurled an Otamamon X into a large cylindrical tube and a large lid sealed shut on top of it. In a tube beside it was a regular Otamamon… the blue amphibian Digimon staring at its' virus-infected counterpart. The Otamamon X was a lot fatter and was wearing a small crown… it also looked very terrified.

"What are you going to do…?" the Otamamon X asked. Through the glass he could see the man with long white hair walk up to him. He was also wearing a white lab coat and goggles… though one could just tell his eyes were glaring at the Digimon as if he were angry.

"Just a test," was all Dartz replied with, wearing a big smile on his face, "blast them both."

Both Otamamon's eyes widened in fright. The underling scientist nodded in agreement and sat down at a console in front of both tubes. Behind them, a door was opened and another figure walked into the lab. He was considerably younger and seemed a little awed by the place. He looked around curiously until he eyes settled on the nearby station where Lord Dartz had the two Otamamon.

"Are you sure about this experiment, Lord Dartz?" his right-hand man: Klentz, asked him, "I mean these Digimon have done you no wrong."

"All X-Digimon have done us wrong," Lord Dartz sneered back at him, his eyes fixed on the two helpless Rookie Digimon, "initiate the test."

"Dad? What are you doing?" another voice cut into the conversation. The voice of the kid who had just wandered in.

Dartz and Klentz both looked back at him. Lord Dartz did not wear a happy expression, "Serph, what are you--?"

"Firing the laser now," the underling scientist interrupted, pressing a switch on the console. The two Digimon clawed at the side of their tubes in a desperate attempt to escape as the roof above them began to glow brightly. Serph and Klentz stared wide-eyed as the tubes went white from the intense laser blast… while Lord Dartz turned away from Serph and stared on in anticipation.

When the light dissipated, the regular Otamamon had ceased to exist, incinerated in the blast. The Otamamon X was badly damaged, laying motionless on the bottom of the tube… with its' data scattering around and trying to reform itself. Lord Dartz pushed up his goggled and stared wide-eyed at it.

"This is what confuses me! Why are X-Digimon so much more durable and powerful than normal Digimon!? What elevates them above the rest!?"

"You just killed that innocent Digimon!" Serph exclaimed in horror, "I thought you were developing weapons here!"

"We are," Dartz hissed at Serph, barely turning his head to glare at his son, "get this damn kid out of here, Klentz, he's interrupting my concentration."

"But-- dad…!" Serph began as Klentz moved to push him out, "I needed to ask you about--"

"Now's not the time, Serph," Klentz interrupted him as they moved out of the room and Klentz shut the door behind them. Serph moved away from Klentz and stared up at him in confusion after the door was shut.

"What the heck WAS that!?"

"Your father is trying to see what weaknesses X-Digimon have…"

"But he killed--"

" I know," Klentz responded grimly, "just pretend you didn't see anything. And you shouldn't go into the lab anymore… it greatly disturbs your father to be interrupted."

Serph sighed, "Fine, I won't ask any questions. But then you have to cover for me because I'm leaving to go wander around town?"

"You know your father doesn't approve of you leaving the premises."

"He doesn't approve of anything I do!"

"Because he wants you to be the next ruler of Esperanza and you aren't exactly the ideal son."

"Because he isn't the ideal father!" Serph shouted angrily, turning on his heel and walking away quickly.

Klentz smirked and shouted after him, "You better be back by 9... I can't cover for you forever!"

When Serph was gone, Klentz sighed and leaned his head against the door, "Kids these days… well, I guess I used to be fairly impetuous as-- huh?"

Klentz was interrupted as a hidden communicator in his coat pocket beeped. He reached under his white lab coat, checked to see no one was there, and answered it.

"Yes?"

Our lord wants a second X-Digimon Tamer project… and a better set-up this time. We need to know if they're the future or not and Mia Ausa hasn't proved enough yet. Find them a second kid, … or are you too incompetent to do that?

"Shut up, 'Presea'," he responded, looking out the window as he could see Serph heading down the massive tower in the glass elevator, "I have a the perfect kid in mind… but no killing this one, I like him."

Yeah, sure, whatever… I'll dispatch some of my favourite minions…

"And I'll be glad to watch them suck… like YOU do. Klentz out."

Klentz neglected to return to the lab and walked towards the elevator. The second move was about the be made…

**Heroes Eternity, Chapter 2: The Second Born**

"Alright, so what's on the agenda for today!?" Lopmon X asked Mia as she crawled out of bed. Mia moaned and poked at her messy blue hair. She let her eyes settle on her newfound partner… one whom she had detested not so long ago… but managed to get over it thanks to a short confrontation with Lance and Tentomon X.

"Who are you again?" she moaned, sleepily.

"Get up, Mia," Lopmon X muttered, kicking her with her tiny leg, "it's 3 PM… and someone's been knocking on your door every hour on the hour…"

"Say what?"

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Lopmon sighed and waved her arm across the messy room in the direction of the door, "And there it is."

"Crap," Mia muttered, "I'm probably going to be evicted from my apartment because I quit the military…"

"This is a military apartment complex?"

"Yeah so screw it, I'm not answering the door right now," she said, turning away from the door and pulling her pink top off, revealing her low-cut white bra, "I'll answer it next hour."

Lopmon X nodded in agreement, "Okay… but what's with the strip show?"

Mia glanced down and sort of blushed, "Uh… oops, I was going to take a shower. I'm not used to someone else being here."

"Uhm… well if it makes you feel any better, you have a really nice chest!"

Mia raised her eyebrow at her partner, "And I suppose you're the expert?"

"Wait til I Digivolve a couple times, I'll put you to shame, missy," Lopmon X said, smirking and jumping onto Mia's bed… but accidentally bounced herself off and crashed down on the other side.

Mia smiled… despite being an X-Digimon, it was nice to have another girl to talk to for a change. Not like those other two idiots…

"Mia!?" Tom's voice shouted from the other side of the door, "are you home?! I know you're home… you left your shoes out there!"

Mia and Lopmon both jerked their heads quickly in the direction of the door in alarm. Mia quickly hissed at Lopmon, "Hide! Under the bed!"

"Gee, never would've thought of that," Lopmon muttered, doing as told. Mia walked over to the door and slowly opened it, peeking her head out to see Tom and Alex, both dressed in normal clothing. She gave them somewhat of a 'what do you want?' stare.

"What?" she asked, abruptly.

"Uhm… so you're feeling better?" Tom asked carefully, hoping not to upset her, "because we've been banging on your door all day…"

"When he got bored of knocking, I started bashing his face into the door," Alex added.

Tom growled at him, "Which I did NOT say was okay!"

"You liked it."

"Shut up."

"Guys, not now," Mia began to quiet them, "look, I know I'm being distant but I guess I'll let you guys buy me dinner tonight, okay?"

"No, not okay!" Tom shouted, bursting through the door as Alex tried to reach out and stop him, "look Mia, you're… half naked!"

Tom froze and stared at her, while she stared back at him disapprovingly. Alex slowly peered his head through the door to look, "Really…?"

"Ugh!" Mia grunted angrily, grabbing Tom by the ear and bashing his head into Alex's. She then kicked Tom into Alex, knocking them both out of the apartment.

"Ow, Mia!" Tom shouted, "like I knew you were naked!"

"You SO knew," Alex moaned. Tom placed his hand on Alex's mouth and grinned sheepishly. Mia shook her head at them.

"Look guys… I am going through some major changes in my life and right now I don't really have the tolerance… look please just give me some space for a while, okay?"

"Only if we get to see you like that again."

"That'll be the day," Mia said, slamming the door. She sighed and rested her back on it, "I'm going to have no friends…"

"I thought you handled them quite well," Lopmon X chirped, crawling out from under the bed.

"They're always trying to see me naked…well mostly Tom. Alex usually just babbles about how is unjust or… bah, I don't even want to think about them right now. Shower time."

"I'll try not to peek."

"Hah."

Mia went into the bathroom and Lopmon X sighed, "I hope I'm not going to drag your life down, Mia… soon you'll realize the bigger task at hand… the task I am here to accomplish…"

Mia later headed out with Lopmon to do a lap of the city, as was her usual walk when she was bored. Lopmon was careful to stay out of sight until they reached the less habited part of the city where Mia would often go when she wanted to be alone. No one there had Digimon or cared about them… so they weren't likely to make the connection that Lopmon was an X-Digimon.

Mia was more dressed up this time, aware that the weather actually was getting cold lately. She was wearing a long-sleeved blue jacket with her low-cut pink top underneath again. Ever since Lopmon made that comment about her breasts she felt like showing them off more… but she also didn't feel like freezing to death.

"Ugh," Lopmon grunted as they walked out of an ice cream shop, where Mia had bought them both a cone, "do they have to play that obnoxiously annoying carnival music in there? How do you stand it when you go there?"

"Eh," Mia shrugged, taking a rather large bite off of her cone, "once it melts your brain it's not so bad."

"I can't believe out of all things, they still make ice cream…"

"Huh?" Mia mused, "what do you mean 'still'?"

"Uhh… nothing. So this is where you like to hang, eh?"

"There are two Mia's: Party Mia and Somber, Brooding Mia. The latter one likes it here… where its quiet and I can beat up assholes who try to mug and rape me."

"Sounds like the life…" Lopmon commented, downing her ice cream cone in one bite, "so what exactly are we going to do now, anyway?"

"I don't know. I like you… but I still don't like X-Digimon… and I want to make the ones who killed my father pay. I want to bring an end to them and their tyranny once and for all."

"Whoa, YOUR father was Commander Ausa?" a voice cut into their conversation. A boy who had just walked by them turned around. Mia and Lopmon turned around too, unsure if he was going to be trouble or not.

As far as Mia was concerned, he didn't look anything like trouble. He was about six feet tall, had well-combed brown hair, and nice-looking brown eyes. His body was fairly toned and he was wearing a black t-shirt with a dragon design on it. He and Mia locked eyes… and there was an instant silence.

"Uhm… hello…?" Lopmon X asked, waving her ears up in Mia's fact, "he asked you a question."

"Uh… right, yes," Mia said, composing herself, "yeah he was… did you know him?"

"Who doesn't know the greatest military general of all time!?" the boy exclaimed, "everyone knows him almost as well as they know my father!"

Mia paused and tried to place her finger on it, "Who is… your father…?"

The brown-haired boy stared at her like she was crazy, "Whoa, you don't know who I am!? I thought that's why you were staring at me."

"No, I was staring at you because you have something on your nose. Who's your father?"

The boy sighed, "I need a new agent. I'm Serph Dartz… son of Lord Dartz himself. Normally I don't even talk to people when I go wandering around… but I heard Commander Ausa's name and I knew you'd be interesting. You want dinner? I'm buying."

"Wow, you're Lord Dartz's--"

"Mia, what about Tom and Alex?" Lopmon X reminded her, "you said you'd go for dinner with them."

"Yeah but… yeah okay," she said to Serph, "I'd like to talk to someone else who knew my father…"

"Okay," he said, smiling and walking over next to her, "I'm so sorry about what happened to him…"

Serph and Mia began to walk off and talk, leaving Lopmon to stare after them. She sighed and started to walk after them, "Geez… they both want to do each other so bad, I think I'M feeling it. Oh well, hopefully this will get her over it…"

Lopmon X suddenly stopped and glanced upward, _Huh? I sense another X-Digimon…_

Lopmon glanced around and the streets were virtually empty, minus a few people and cars. She narrowed her eyes and began to cautiously walk after Mia, _Now I DEFINITELY better tag along… it could be that Lance jerk and his bug-eyed friend again… hmm…_

Lopmon bounded off and landed on Mia's back, while two red eyes watched her leave from a nearby alleyway. There was a low, metallic growl and then the creature disappeared completely into the shadows…

"Miiiiiaaaaa!!!" Tom shouted, slamming his fist on her apartment door, "are you THERE?!?!!?"

"Let me try!" Alex said, pushing Tom's face into the door. Tom turned around and grabbed Alex by the collar of his shirt, pushing him back towards the railing. Alex looked down and saw it was a very very long way down and he'd land in the military yard.

"You wanna? You wanna go down there, you tool?"

"I'd had my fall to death scheduled for next week…"

Tom let Alex go and sighed in frustration, "Aaargh! She ditched us again!"

"Lighten up on her… her father JUST died."

"But still, you'd think this would be when she wants friends the most!" Tom shouted, messing up his brown hair with his hands as he tried to process it in his brain, "no, I simply cannot accept this! Something is wrong!"

"What do you like about her so much anyway? She's just a girl…"

"Oh don't kid me, YOU like her too."

"But not as much as you. You're borderline obsessive," Alex said, "maybe I should get Guilmon to blast you somewhere sensitive."

"Just shut up and help me find her… we KNOW where she goes when she's upset," Tom groaned, turning and running along the metal platform for the elevator down to the ground floor. Alex sighed and ran after him.

The sky had darkened and Serph and Mia had finished their impromptu dinner. Lopmon let out a loud belch and proceeded to rest on Mia's back with her ears wrapped around her to hang on. Mia and Serph kept eyeing each other and they had quite a bit to talk about.

"Something's weird about your Digimon, huh? I've never seen a Lopmon that looks like that before…"

"Have you ever seen a Lopmon before?" Lopmon X asked, getting defensive. Serph kind of shrugged and Lopmon looked away from him, "then shaddap."

Mia giggled a bit and realized they'd strayed quite far from the actual city part of the city. There were a lot of half-constructed buildings and abandoned construction equipment. This part of the city was known as the Abandoned Zone, where Lord Dartz cut funding for it in order to enhance his military further. There wasn't even pavement here… it was all dirt or rock formations still.

"So tell me, Prince Serph… why does someone who gets the live in the big castle wander around places like this? To pick up hot blue-haired chicks with connections to the army?" Mia asked, fiddling with her hair a bit in nervousness.

Serph smirked and glanced around at all the half-finished formations, "Why? Cuz I like getting out there and getting dirty myself! I want to build the rest of this town myself!"

Mia raised her eyebrow at him, "… well good luck with that."

"No, I mean… well, I'm not really a people person. Sometimes I'll talk to people… but really only people I can trust. I think I only have one friend… and she got kicked out of the city…"

"Huh? Why?" she asked back… although she thought she already knew the answer.

"Because she had an X-Digimon," Serph said, standing still and clenching his fists, "and she loved him too much to give him up to my father's stupid laws. I mean, I hate the X-Digimon as much as the next guy… but only the ones who attack our town… there are good ones… just like there are evil humans…"

"So you don't think it's wrong for someone to have an X-Digimon?" Mia asked curiously.

Serph shook his head, "No… and yes I have figured out you have an X-Digimon. Very bold of you to walk around in public with it like that."

"Well it's only around this area of town…"

"Still, you never know who's watching…"

Up in the rafters of what was a more completed structure, the same hooded figure from last night chuckled upon hearing what Serph said. He began to talk to himself in a low voice.

"You're right, young Serph… now let the show begin…"

The figure snapped his fingers and continued to watch from the shadows as Mia and Lance continued walking, still engulfed in their conversation…

"And you don't think I'm weird?"

"No, why would I?" Serph replied, looking right into her blue eyes, "I definitely don't think you're weird…"

Mia stared back into his brown eyes as they began to move closer to each other, "Damn I'm stupid… I bet you do this to all the girls…"

"Heh, yeah… but I think there's actually something about you… I think we're…"

"Friends?" Mia finished for him as they got closer and began to embrace, "oh yeah… for sure…"

_Man, Tom would blow a-- _Lopmon began to think but suddenly her attention was distracted as the earth shook! Mia and Serph were snapped out of their moment and Mia fell forward but Serph caught her in mid-fall by grabbing her arm.

Mia let out of a heavy gasp of stress, "… what the hell was that!?"

Serph made some incomprehensible mutter as he stared away from Mia and into the wide-open area where few structures existed. Lopmon X was staring there too, so Mia figured she may as well take a look.

"Holy shit."

Three. Three huge red Tyrannomon X with glowing eyes and all growling in their direction, standing half the size of some of the building structures. They had large jagged green plates coming out of their back, tail, and arms… and two huge green horns curved backward out of their skulls. They looked incredibly more wicked than regular Tyrannomon… and hungry.

"Where the hell did they come from!? How did they get through the security grid!?" Serph exclaimed, "they look like they're after us!"

"Think it was those Radical Dreamer jerks?" Mia asked, glancing down at Lopmon X, who was glaring intensely at the enemy Digimon.

"Nuh-uh, this doesn't seem their style. And I highly doubt I can take these three fucking massive things all by myself," Lopmon informed her, with much discretion.

"Can't you just Digivolve?" Serph asked her.

"I don't know how to Digivolve! I was just born! Did you know how to ride a bike when you were born!?"

Serph scratched his head in embarrassment, "No, I guess not…"

"Well these things look like they want to brawl…" Mia moaned, "I'd say we should run but I don't think we can--"

"BLAZING ICE!!!" Lopmon X screamed, firing her ice blast and pelting one right on the nose. It roared out in pain and stepped back a little bit. The other two grunted angrily and opened their mouths, revealing fiery breath.

Mia, Serph, and Lopmon X all froze on the spot. Lopmon gulped, "Maybe that wasn't such a good idea…"

"BLAZE BLAST!!!" they both bellowed, pouring a stream of fire down at the three of them. All of them scattered and dove out of the way, able to feel the intensity of the heat blast on their backs as they cleared it.

"Alright, we have to defend ourselves somehow!" Mia exclaimed, "I wish I had my damn battle armor!"

"Heh, watch me work!" Serph said, sliding a throwing knife out of his pocket and swiftly whipping it at the nearest Tyrannomon X. It struck the dinosaur Digimon in the eye and he roared out loudly in pain, aimlessly blasting fire into the sky.

"Wow, your aim is pro!" Mia gasped, notably impressed. Serph smirked when he noticed her reaction and watched the Tyrannomon blast a large skeleton of a building nearby. It began to creak and shutter as if it was going to fall.

"Lopmon! Hit that building with all you got where the Tyrannomon hit it!" Serph shouted. Lopmon leapt out of the way as another Tyrannomon tried to stomp on her and glanced over, noticing all the bubbling, melted metal on the structure nearby.

"BLAZE BLAST!!!"

The Tyrannomon X she was just fighting tried to incinerate her but she was too quick and bounded into the air again. She landed on its' head and took her shot at the building with all of her strength.

"BLAZING ICE!!!"

Lopmon's blast had so much force that it knocked her backward off of the Tyrannomon X's head. Her ice shot managed to pierce the metal beam however and sent a large pile of debris crashing down on him, battering him as he was still snarling about his pierced eye. He tried to bash all of the construct away but looked up and was pierced right through the head with a metal beam. The beam slid right into his mouth and jutted out of the back of his head, spilling blood everywhere.

"Eww…" Mia groaned, cringing, "that's kinda sick."

The Tyrannomon X pierced collapsed over backward and its' data began to break up. The other two Tyrannomon roared out in anger, not happy to see the loss of their friend. The nearest one turned on Lopmon X and charged her.

"WILD SMASHER!!!"

Lopmon was given a mighty bash by the Tyrannomon's claw and sent tumbling across the dirt, coming to a stop in front of where Mia and Serph were standing. Mia pulled out her D-Volver and stared at Lopmon with concern.

"Now what are we going to do?" Serph asked, "I don't think we get that lucky twice."

"Uhm…" Mia began, "I have no clue…"

The remaining two Tyrannomon X snarled angrily and began to stomp toward them. Suddenly, something bounded over their heads… it looked much akin to a cybernetic raptor colored in blacks and greens. It let out a mechanical snarl at the Tyrannomon, trying to warn them to stay back.

"BLAZE BLAST!!!" one of them yelled, trying to toast the newcomer to the battle. The cyber raptor was a lot swifter, however, and managed to run around the blast and charged right at the unsuspecting Champion Digimon.

"REND!!!" the new Digimon shouted, doing a mighty bound at the Tyrannomon with it's hind legs. He bashed the Tyrannomon hard with his claws in the chest. It staggered backward and the new Digimon landed in front of it, firing at blast at it out of his mouth!

"X-BEAM!!!"

The blast connected with the Tyrannomon's chin and caused it to crash over onto its' back. Serph and Mia were both staring in awe at the new Digimon, while Lopmon pulled herself to her feet and began to speak.

"That… that's the Digimon I sensed earlier… it's an X-Digimon!"

"What!?" Serph explained, "then what's it doing here!?"

"Serph Dartz," it spoke in a metallic voice, causing Serph to jump in alarm since it knew his name, "you've always wanted a Digimon partner, right?"

"No way…" Serph gasped. Suddenly there was burst of light… and he was holding a D-Volver in his hand. Mia and Serph both stared at it in disbelief… and Serph just repeated himself, "NO WAY!"

"Way," the cyber raptor replied, "I'm Cybermon X… and I think we punish a lot of fools together."

Mia smiled and glanced at her brown-haired friend, "Now I'm definitely not alone in this."

"Nope, definitely aren't," Serph said, "alright, Cybermon! Get ready to fight!"

"You too, Lopmon," Mia ordered, pointing her D-Volver at her battered partner and pressing down a button on it, "take my stamina!"

Mia transferred a large portion of energy into Lopmon until she began to feel drained. Lopmon was rejuvenated and leapt over next to Cybermon X, facing off against the one Tyrannomon X that was still standing.

"I hope you're not just a one-hit wonder…" Lopmon muttered.

"Wait and see," Cybermon replied, "let's take this thing down!"

"Rrrrgh… kill you…!" the Tyrannomon X snarled, attempting to stomp on the two Rookies. They both dodged of course, so the Tyrannomon swung and tried to hit them with its' tail.

"Hah!" Lopmon laughed, sliding under it's tail easily with her boosted strength, "you're so slow! What a useless Digimon!"

"Graaaah!!!" it bellowed, getting angry from the insults. Cybermon X leapt in front of it and readied his mouth beam again before it could notice him. Lopmon X slid over next to him and prepared her attack as well.

"X-BEAM!!!"

"BLAZING ICE!!!"

The Tyrannomon X glanced down to receive both attacks in the face, literally blowing its' head off. It's body collapsed toward Cybermon X and Lopmon X, whom both jumped out of the way as it crashed and began to delete.

"Yeah! We're a sweet team!" Serph shouted, "wow, having a Digimon is a rush!"

"Isn't it?" Mia asked, smiling from all the excitement, "now let's-- hey guys, watch out!!"

"BLAZE BLAST!!!"

The final Tyrannomon X blasted both Lopmon and Cybermon with its' mighty flame, sending them crashing hard onto the ground. They both moaned weakly and ceased movement.

"Oh they can jump around and slap things around but one hit and they're out!?" Serph exclaimed, "get up!!!"

"Raaargh!!" the Tyrannomon X snarled, stomping toward Serph and Mia once again. Serph stepped in front of Mia… but even she knew they were both screwed no matter what. She couldn't believe that after getting her new partner and meeting her new friends… that this brainless dinosaur was going to kill her!

"Why does this thing have a mad-on for us anyway!?" Mia shrieked, "we're fucking screwed!!!"

"Damn it…" Serph muttered, unsure of what the hell he was going to do to protect Mia, "I knew I should've stayed home today…"

Suddenly a huge spotlight shone down on the Tyrannomon. It roared out in surprised and looked skyward, as did Serph and Mia. A helicopter was flying overhead… one that belonged to the army!

X-Digimon scum! On your knees now! a voice boomed out of the loudspeaker, if you do not comply you will be terminated!

"Graaah! BLAZE BLAST!!!" it bellowed, launching a fireball upward and blasting the tail-end of the helicopter off. It fell down and exploded in part of the clearing. Mia and Serph both watched in astonishment.

You were warned! the same voice boomed from out in the darkness. Suddenly a swarm of mech-warriors and Tamers circled the entire area. There had to be at least fifty of them. Mia noticed that Tom and Alex were among them, with MetalGreymon and WarGrowlmon.

"Oh no… oh no no no…" Mia gasped in fright, gripping her head in frustration.

"What?" Serph asked cluelessly.

"Our Digimon! Our X-Digimon!" she cried, running for Lopmon. Serph realized it also and ran for Cybermon.

FIRE!!!

All sorts of energy attacks and missiles were fired at the remaining Tyrannomon X, completely obliterating it! Then they all turned their attention toward were Lopmon X and Cybermon X were laying.

"Stop!" Mia shouted, leaping in front of Lopmon and extending her arms out so as to shield her. All the troops held their fire… Tom and Alex both stared at her in wonderment.

"Well… we found her," Alex muttered.

Tom narrowed his eyes, "Yeah but what's going on? Look, she's with Prince Serph… and those X-Digimon!"

Ausa, stand down!

"No, Commander Savenoff! You can't kill this X-Digimon!" Mia protested, "I won't let you!"

"Mia…" Lopmon groaned, touched by her partner's sudden affection for her. She wanted to say more but she was too damaged from the Tyrannomon's attack and simply passed out.

"Cybermon…?" Serph wondered, kneeling down next to the fallen Digimon.

"Don't worry about me, Serph. I have a built-in projector that allows me to appear as a normal Cybermon while I'm in Rookie stage… I'm safe from them."

"Okay good… but Mia and Lopmon… no…" Serph gasped, looking in front of him, "I just met her… am I going to lose already? Like I lost Hayley…"

Tom studied Mia's determined expression and then his eyes shifted over to her left hand… where she was gripping a D-Volver. It didn't take him long to put two and two together and he gasped in alarm.

"That Digimon! It's her partner! That's why she's been acting weird!"

Alex's eyes widened, "No way! Mia's a… traitor?!"

Commander Savenoff walked up to Mia in her battle suit and stared down the blue-haired girl. She sighed, "Ugh. Mia, pick up your… partner. You're being exiled from the city."

"What!?" Tom, Alex, and Serph all cried out at once.

"You can't," Serph said, trying to push his way in front of Commander Savenoff, "I'm of higher authority of you and--"

"You have NO authority until you're the leader of the kingdom, Prince Serph. Now stand down before I'm forced to sedate you."

"But--!!"

"Look, if I don't do this your father will. And he won't be as nice as I am."

Serph grunted and glanced over at Mia. She picked up Lopmon X and cradled her in her arms. She looked back at Serph and nodded her head, giving him the signal that it was okay. Commander Savenoff led her off through her former comrades in the army, who all stared in disbelief.

"Mia!" Tom and Alex both shouted as she was led past them. Mia looked at both of them, obviously she was really crushed, but she didn't say anything. Serph, Tom, and Alex could only stand there and stare in despair as their friend was locked out of the city… forever.


	4. 3: Cloak of Darkness

-1"Great chaos has come to pass in our republic of Esperanza. The daughter of the late, great, Commander Ausa has been found conspiring with an X-Digimon scum, making her a traitor. I simply carried out Lord Dartz's will by exiling her."

"But why her?! She was my star warrior!" another man exclaimed to Colonel Savenoff. He was an older man with neatly cut grey hair and a moustache that fit. He spoke with a gruff voice and was obviously one of the army commanders.

"Because, Commander Jameson… we are supposed to have a zero-tolerance for any and all conspiring with X-Digimon. I'd even exile you if I found out you had one."

"Thank you for that warm sentiment, you stupid bitch," he grumbled in an angry tone, "I think Lord Dartz has gone off his rocker lately. Making all these crazy laws…"

Commander Savenoff's jaw dropped. The other two people in the room: Klentz and Serph, both stared at her in surprise. She, Jameson, and Klentz were having a meeting to discuss the recent craziness… and Serph was too involved to stay out of it.

"Do not talk to your superior officer like that!" she reprimanded him in a fierce tone, "if I have to fire you then I'll have too replace TWO good commanders! Ugh… that poor girl's life all went down the drain when her father died…"

"I am going to go talk to my father," Serph intervened, "I want him to let Mia and the others with X-Digimon back into the city. It isn't their fault."

"No, it isn't," Commander Jameson agreed, "I will come with you and we'll talk with him together, young Serph."

Klentz shook his head, "Why? You won't change his mind. I work with the man every day and until his reign is over, he's going to stick to the complete obliteration of all X-Digimon… threatening or not."

Serph, Savenoff, and Jameson all knew Klentz's words were true and they all grunted in disgust. Not much was said for quite a while until Serph finally peeped up again.

"Fine then. I will work hard to gain his respect and become the next ruler of Esperanza. Then I can change everything as I see fit."

"Now you're using your head," Klentz agreed.

"Good thing you have a nice, normal Digimon now. Becoming a Tamer is something your father respects… as he is the best of us all," Savenoff told him as she turned to leave the room, "I'm going home for the night."

Serph nodded slowly when Savenoff said he had a normal Digimon. He was really glad Cybermon X was able to keep his true form hidden. He had no idea what would happen to him if he was found out. Klentz noticed his reaction and smirked slightly in response to it.

"Me too," Jameson said, "lock up the place when you're done here."

The two of them left and Serph sighed. Klentz was moving to leave to but looked at Serph as he walked past him, "What's wrong, Serph?"

"I really liked her…"

"Sorry to say but she's gone now. Focus your attention on getting your father's attention. After all, you don't want Serena becoming the heir to the throne instead of you."

"Yeah…"

"Good night, Prince."

Klentz left Serph alone and began to leave the military base. He got another bleep on his communicator and once making sure no one was around, he answered it speaking in a whisper tone.

"Presea! Stop bleeping me all the time!"

Boss says you're to go after that girl.

"What? Why?"

Get to her before HE does. Make her see things our way.

"Ah yeah… good idea. I'll never let Ace beat me to the punch again," he said, turning off his communicator and narrowing his eyes as he walked away, "it's time to play tug-of-war with her soul…"

**Heroes Eternity, Chapter 3: Cloak of Darkness**

It had been a whole night since the incident. A whole night since she was branded a traitor in front of her only friends and kicked out of the only place she ever called home. There were many things Mia Ausa was feeling right now… happiness was not one of them.

"Lopmon… how far have we walked…?" Mia groaned as the hot sun burned down on top of them.

The whole terrain was a rocky wasteland as far as the eye could see. It was a geological phenomenon, all the vegetation having wasted away due to the various wars over the years… leaving very few habitable places remaining.

"Well taking into account your three hours of whining… our tiny amount of sleep… and chasing down that flock of Kiwimon that took off with our food… I'd say at least 4 miles…"

Mia wiped some sweat off of her forehead and grimaced as she looked at her soaked hand. She tried to peel strands of blue hair sticking to her face but eventually sighed in defeat.

"I've never walked this far… not even in my military exercises… I always made Tom or Alex carry me."

"They carried you during official military exercises?"

"Yeah. I told them I'd show them my thong. Of course I never did… but oh, did they keep falling for it…"

The tiny bunny Digimon forced a laugh out of sheer exhaustion, "You realize reminiscing isn't going to make leaving any easier, right?"

"I have never felt as awful as I have right now. I lost everything I had in the last eighteen years of my life in a period of forty-eight hours… I've only gained one worthwhile thing…"

"Strong calves from all this walking?"

"Haha, yes… that. But also… a great new friend… one I overlooked even my views on life to make…" Mia said with a weak smile. Lopmon smirked back.

"Aww, you're so sweet. I'd give you a hug but I need to focus my energy on not collapsing."

Mia noticed a fairly large formation up ahead… with plenty of glorious shade. She wandered over to it and collapsed in the shade, "Let's collapse here before I die."

Lopmon X flopped down beside her, "I haven't heard a better idea in all my life."

Mia let out a happy moan as she stretched and allowed the shade to revitalize her, "I couldn't help but think that something's funny about this rock…"

"Hmm? Yeah… seemed kinda green…" Lopmon X agreed, also relieved to see some shelter. Then her little eyes widened, "… because this is no rock!"

The formation moved and turned around, revealing the form of a gargantuan Champion-level Digimon: Tuskmon! The menacing Digimon with two huge tusks protruding from its' head. It growled deeply and glared down at the two of them… who were staring upward in shock at it.

"We may want to run…" Lopmon X suggested.

"But I don't want to leave the shade…" Mia sighed, slowly getting up, "let's just pray this guy doesn't want to fight us for trespassing on his turf…"

The Tuskmon stomped its' foot down in front of them, sending out a tremor that knocked them both back over. Mia sighed as her hopes were just shot down, "Lovely…"

Serph grunted in annoyance as he lay on his rather large bed. He was simply staring at the ceiling, trying to think of all the things that were bugging him and put them into the order of what pissed him off the most. Cybermon X stood there studying his new partner.

"Your eyes are twitching," Cybermon commented, "maybe you should stop doing that."

"Blarg," Serph grunted, rolling over and staring back at Cybermon, "everything sucks right now."

"That's not true. You have that fine physique."

Serph rolled back onto his back, "Digimon are weird."

"That's a racist comment."

"Everything is racist nowadays! Like the stupid ban on X-Digimon! I hate the scum that attack our city as much as the next guy but you guys are a totally different thing! It's not fair…"

"You're just upset because Mia is gone… we could go kill things that piss you off if it'll make you feel better."

"That DOES sound like fun but--"

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Serph sat upright very fast and looked over at Cybermon X, whom looked just like a normal Digimon thanks to his built-in projector. Serph sighed with relief and looked over at the door, "Come in."

"Hey bro!" a girl shouted, bursting through the door and leaping inside. She was dressed in a rather expensive-looking skirt and blazer, with her long pink hair done up in a ponytail. She couldn't be much younger than Serph… and she was obviously his sister.

He groaned, "Hello Serena. This is a rare event."

"No kidding Serph, if that is your real name," she said jokingly, walking into the room, "I just HAD to come see when I heard that my big loser brother finally got himself a Digimon."

"Just because you got yours a year ago doesn't make it any better than mine."

"Pfft. Biyomon is the best," she said, walking up to Cybermon and staring at him. She looked him over, "well he's certainly a big fellow, ain't he? Can he do anything other than stand there?"

"He can bite your head off," Serph said, hopping out of bed and facing Serena next to Cybermon, "don't use have princess duties to do? Like shooting yourself?"

"I just had to come remind you that I'm dad's favourite and that I'm going to become a new commander of the army in place of Commander Ausa!"

"You WHAT?!" Serph exclaimed, "no way! Dad knows I've wanted to be in the army forever! That's why he put me in all those combat training classes!"

"No that's why he put ME in all those classes. He put you there because he didn't want to see your face. The people love us, Serph… we're like celebrities. Why the hell do you act like such a stiff all the time?"

"I have better things to do than dance around for idiots."

"Those idiots make you what you are, big bro. And me too," she reminded him, turning to head out the door, "I'm going to the spa, want to come?"

"No."

"Yeah, you're such a weirdo you'd probly get all sorts of creepy incest thoughts running through your head anyway," she said, waving her fingers around her head while smirking, "heh. See ya!"

With that she slammed the door and left. Serph and Cybermon both stared at the door after she left. Serph held his fingers up near his eye and pressed them together, as if to crush Serena between them.

"Squish. I need to deadbolt that door."

"Screw that. I'll just kill her the next time she comes in," Cybermon said eagerly. Serph chuckled and suddenly the door was knocked on again. He grumbled in annoyance.

"Go away Serena!"

The door opened and Serph's expression changed instantly.

"You're not Serena…"

"SLAMMING TUSK!!!" the lumbering Champion-level Tuskmon bellowed, throwing himself at Mia and Lopmon X headfirst. Lopmon dove out of the way and Mia simply tripped and fell onto her butt. The Tuskmon narrowly missed skewering her and his tusks pierced into a rock formation right behind, getting stuck.

Mia glanced up at Tuskmon's head, which looked back down at her. She giggled nervously and waved at him, "Sorry but I don't do autographs if that's what you're here for."

"GRAAAAARRRGHH!!!" it roared at her, shaking the entire area around them with the mighty pitch of its' voice, "RAAARGH! RAAAAAAAAARRRR!!!"

"Wow, Lopmon. This Tuskmon is able to communicate exactly how I felt last night when we got exiled. The 'grarrgh' and everything. That's what I should've said to Colonel Savenoff."

"Yeah maybe…" Lopmon said calmly before freaking out, "OR MAYBE YOU SHOULD GET THE HELL AWAY FROM IT!!!"

Mia took the hint and ran out from underneath Tuskmon as it bashed its' head free from the rocks and bashed its' arm down near where she was standing. Mia regrouped with Lopmon and they faced their foe of the hour.

"What's with him, anyway? I thought most Digimon had become civilized… lots of them live in cities or are partners…" Mia wondered.

"Wow you will NEVER survive out here, city girl."

"SLAMMING TUSK!!!" Tuskmon bellowed again, preparing to charge them. Lopmon leapt in his path and inhaled an attack of her own.

"BLAZING ICE!!!"

Her ice beam struck him right in the face and with a loud cry of pain he slid over onto his side and tumbled straight into another rock formation, ploughing it over.

"Yes! I'm so awesome!" Lopmon X exclaimed, leaping up into the air, "no normal Digimon is a match for me!"

"You X-Digimon really are powerful…" Mia observed, "I wonder if--"

Suddenly black data began to stream over the cliffs above them, rippling the air around it as it travelled. Mia and Lopmon both glanced up in surprise as it all streamed right into the groggy Tuskmon. Both of their eyes widened as the Tuskmon's form began to change.

"Lopmon… is that data what I think it is…?"

"Oh yeah… it's the X-Virus. But where the hell is it coming from…?"

Lopmon curiously looked up at the cliff and narrowed her eyes… knowing someone was up there. She didn't have much time to wonder about it though because Tuskmon emerged from the rubble… and he looked pissed. His tusks were a lot larger… and he himself had grown in stature… but there wasn't much change. He simply looked possessed.

"I don't like the way he's looking at us…" Mia muttered, taking a few slow steps back.

"Do you ever like the way something with red eyes is looking at you?"

"Please stop cracking wise and beat it up…"

"Remember Tyrannomon X? I'm not strong enough to beat things like this by myself!"

Tuskmon X got tired waiting for them to finish their plan and lunged right at them, bellowing madly and drooling uncontrollably. Mia and Lopmon both glanced up as the stomping creature homed right in on them.

Lopmon X selflessly threw herself at the creature, screaming out an attack in an attempt to slow it down, "BUNNY KICK!!!"

Tuskmon X simply head butted her up into the air and waited for her to drop. He then mashed her with his tusk, producing a rather bloody gash in her side. She cried out in anguish as Tuskmon X whipped her tiny body down hard onto the rocky ground. Mia began to tremble as she stared at Lopmon… not only was blood coming out of her… her data looked like it was going to start breaking up.

"Lopmon…? Move…!"

"GRAAAH!!!" Tuskmon X bellowed, raising his front leg to stomp on her. Mia dropped her D-Volver and clenched her fists tight as she cried out for her doomed partner.

"LOPMON!!!"

Lopmon's data somehow reacted to Mia's cry for her well-being and a sphere of light formed around her. Her data began to reconstruct itself before Mia's eyes… she was Digivolving.

b"LOPMON X DIGIVOLVE TO…"

Lopmon's tiny form expanded into one that stood almost shoulder-length tall to an average human. Her long ears still draped all the way down her back and she was wearing something of a feminine dojo uniform. Folded upwards from her knuckles were two huge iron claws that she could snap into place and use to slash enemies. She twirled around and struck a pose, settling into her Champion form.

"TURUIEMON X!!!"/b

Tuskmon X tried to slam his foot down on her but she simply cast her hands up and flipped him away from her. Mia stared in awe, slowly wiping away small tears that had formed on her from the fear.

"Lopmon… you evolved…"

"Because you cared," Turuiemon X responded, speaking in the same feminine voice Lopmon had, she looked back at Mia and smiled, "I knew I could trust you… we were meant for each other."

Mia picked up her D-Volver and nodded in agreement, "Yeah… now let's waste this drooling psycho!"

"RAAAR!! SLAMMING TUSK!!!" Tuskmon X screamed, leaping to his feet and lunging at them once more. Turuiemon X stood there and awaited the oncoming attack, this time she didn't plan on being skewered by it.

"You're just a one-trick pony, aren't you?" she asked, snapping her left claw into place so she could slash with it, "GAUNTLET CLAW!!!"

She countered his massive attack by leaping forward and delivering a powerful slash to his face, striking blood from him and causing him to rear back and roar out in pain. Turuiemon landed on the ground in front of him and assumed a kung-fu stance, aiming at his underbelly.

"LIGHTNING KUNG FU!!!"

Turuiemon X seemed to disappear she was moving so fast… and reappeared in front of Tuskmon X in mid-air, delivering countless amounts of slashes and kicks to him. These attacks were pushing the behemoth Digimon back… but not defeating him.

_When two partners are in harmony… the shared energy increases… that's why Lance and Tentomon X were so powerful… _Mia thought, watching Turuiemon's movement. She struck her fist forward at the same time Turuiemon did, pressing the button on her D-Volver to add strength to Turuiemon's punch!

"YAA!!!" Turuiemon screamed, delivering a powerful smash and going straight through Tuskmon's mid-section. Tuskmon X roared out in agony and collapsed to the ground next to Turuiemon with a mighty thud, breaking up into data and deleting.

"Wow… that worked… awesome…" Mia gasped, discovering how to really use the shared energy. Suddenly she began to feel dizzy and staggered forward, beginning to collapse.

"Mia!" Turuiemon X shouted, leaping over to her supremely fast and catching her before she could hit the ground, "you've been very helpful today."

"So that means you'll carry me?" she asked, groggily.

"And now you've gone delirious."

"Who the heck are you?" Serph asked, looking at Tom and Alex peering in through his door. They walked in quietly and shut the door. Serph continued to stare at them, "seriously… what are you doing in my room?"

"Uhhh… are you Prince Serph?" Alex asked quietly.

"Yes… and why are you whispering?" Serph asked, crossing his arms, "no wait, I have a better question. Why are you in my room!?!?"

"Uhm…" Tom stuttered.

"Because this is Cybermon and he WILL eat you."

"I really will," Cybermon X ensured them, grinning widely.

"Forgive us for coming in like this," Alex began, "but you were with Mia… right? Before she got exiled."

"Oh, you're Mia's friends," Serph said, lowering his guard, "Alex and Tim, right?"

"My name is Tom," Tom muttered. Alex continued to talk to Serph.

"Yeah… so we were wondering if you knew what the whole deal with that was. Because Tom here is angstful and paranoid about it…"

"Did you touch her? You touched her, didn't you, you royal bastard!" Tom accused him, pointing his finger directly at Serph. Serph smirked and shrugged.

"So what if I did?"

"You jerk!!!" Tom shouted, going to run at Serph but Alex tripped him and he fell flat on his face.

"Sorry, he's kind of obsessed with her," Alex said, "but how did she even get an X-Digimon in the first place?"

"Does it matter?" Serph responded, glancing out the window so as to look beyond the city, "now she's out there all by herself… and we can't help her."

"But why… why would she have an X-Digimon…?" Alex repeated, punching himself in the head lightly, "it's such an unjust thing…"

Serph glared at him, "Maybe you should rethink your little statement. If we can convince my father that X-Digimon partners aren't pure evil, we might be able to get her and the others that were exiled back into the city."

"But they're still X-Digimon…" Alex grumbled, looking down at the ground. Serph sighed in annoyance and decided to shrug off his comments, for the sake of protecting himself and Cybermon X.

"I guess you're right," Serph said, "look… let's go try to talk to my father about Mia. Come on Alex, come on Sam."

"I'm TOM!"

"Yeah, sure you are," Serph said, walking out the door and not even caring about Tom's correcting him.

Tom grumbled some words very fast and followed him out, "Stupid rich bastard thinking he's better than me and trying to steal Mia from me I swear one of these days I should dunk his face in hot oil and then he'll…"

Alex looked back at Cybermon and raised his eyebrow curiously. He then decided it was nothing and left as well, more determined to get Mia back. Wherever she was…

Turuiemon X was supporting a worn-out Mia as they continued their trek through the badlands. Turuiemon was very concerned about her partner… but knew that the energy would replenish it in time. It would just be better if Mia had something to eat or somewhere to rest.

"We just have to make it to the next town Mia. How much further is that…?"

"Not far…" she moaned weakly, "I'm just a little fatigued… don't worry about me…"

"Well we shouldn't use that technique too much until you're used to it. Only in life or death situations I think…"

"I am so looking forward to those," Mia moaned sarcastically. She stopped staring at the boring ground and decided to glance up at the dusk sky for a moment. She blinked as she noticed something was floating in the sky above them. "Uhm… Turuiemon…"

"Yeah?"

"There's someone up there… floating…"

As if on cue, the figure quickly soared to the ground in front of them, kicking up some dust as he landed. It was obviously some sort of Digimon… he stood about one and a half times the height of a normal human. His true figure was masked by an extravagant red and black cloak, which draped down past his feet and covered all of his arms also. Two glowing red eyes could been seen from the mouth of the hood and he had two horns protruding from either side of it. He glared down at them fiercely with his red eyes.

Mia and Turuiemon X simply stared at him. He gave off a very dominating presence. His red eyes moved back and forth between them before finally settling on Mia.

"Please tell me you're not going to offer me some candy…" Mia gasped, trying to make a joke even though she was scared stupid.

"Hmm hmm hmm…" the Digimon chuckled, "are you Mia Ausa?"

"I'm really starting to hate when people ask me that…"

"I am Daemon X, one SaintMachinedramon's Apostles," he finally announced, "I seek out those who have been blessed with the children of the most wondrous virus ever. You're both cordially invited to join the Acolytes."

Mia's expression changed from surprised to angry. She narrowed her eyebrows and glared right back at the powerful Acolyte, "You… work for SaintMachinedramon X…?"

"Yes. I'm one of his Acolytes. There's only eight of us now but we're always looking for new powerful additions. And you two are among the most powerful I've encountered."

"And what makes you think we'll join you?"

"Well, the fact that your entire city cast you out and betrayed you. You can meet others like you… once who were once Tamer and X-Digimon… hybird into the most powerful Bio-Merged beings ever!"

Mia listened to Daemon X's preaching and could only think about how much she hated SaintMachinedramon X for killing her father and how much she wanted to rip his throat out. This scum worked for him… he was no better than him!

Turuiemon X could feel Mia's anger building up and knew Mia wasn't going to accept his offer. She readied herself to assault him when the time was right… but she felt strange… like she'd met this Daemon X before. She shrugged it off and readied herself.

"Well, girl? I've most recently trained this boy named Joseph into a very efficient Apostle. You could be one of the greats like us. Help SaintMachinedramon X and exact revenge on the humans who wronged you!"

"You know what my answer is?" she asked, glaring up at him, "my answer is screw you and screw SaintMachinedramon X!!!"

Turuiemon X leapt into action as her answer caught Daemon X totally off-guard. She dove at the Apostle and readied both of her claws for an assault, "GAUNTLET CLAW!!!"

Daemon X simply grabbed her by the arm and hurled her aside. She managed to land upright and leapt at him again, so he held his arm up in her direction.

"EVIL INFERNO!!!" he announced, making the air around his palm crackle with spontaneous bursts of fire. A searing hot fire blast emerged from his hand and struck Turuiemon X in the chest, sending her crashing to the ground with a cry of agony. Her fur was ablaze and it only subsided when she reverted back to her Rookie form of Lopmon X and collapsed.

Daemon X sighed and looked at Mia, who was considerably freaked out by his stunning display of power. He chuckled a little bit, "Hah, do you see now girl? The kind of warrior I could train you to be?"

"Die," Mia hissed angrily, barely able to stand through the combination of her fatigue and anger.

Daemon X shook his cloaked head, "That wasn't the answer I was looking for. I'll just have to take you by force then!!"

"Get away from her, Daemon! Or I'll make you suffer the consequences slowly and painfully," pierced another foreign voice into the conversation. Mia and Daemon X both glanced up to see someone standing above them on the cliff overlooking the badlands.

It was a tall humanoid figure standing in white shining armour and with seven beautiful wings spread out of his back. He had a red X-emblem on his chest and two swords hanging from his waist. A large cannon shaped in the form of MetalGarurumon's head was slung over his back. Despite his appearance, he was not an X-Digimon… he obviously opposed Daemon X.

"X-Omnidramon!" Daemon X hissed in annoyance, turning away from Mia and directing his attention to the newcomer, "must you always meddle in my affairs?!"

"Always, old friend," X-Omnidramon told him, crossing his arms in front of his chest and staring sternly down at Daemon X, "and if my count is correct, I've rescued two Tamers from you and only lost one."

"Well I'm going to tie that record!" Daemon X shouted, making it sound as if they were in a competition, "then I'll storm your base and recapture the two X-Tamer girls you stole from me!"

"Bring it on, you psycho."

"DARK ARM BLADE!!!" Daemon X screamed quickly, extending two rather large blades of dark energy out of his hands. He soared up at X-Omnidramon, holding out the blade on his right arm… but X-Omnidramon was swift and quickly drew one of his own swords, blocking Daemon's precisely tip-to-tip. The two Mega Digimon both glared at each other… there was obviously a lot of history to their battling from what Mia could tell.

"Wow… this guy is like a superhero…" she gasped, staring up at their stalemated swordfight, "I just hope this X-Omnidramon guy is as good as he's shiny…"

"Oh he's good," Lopmon X said, apparently having revived and leaping over next to Mia_, I remember him…_

"Your accuracy gets better every time," Daemon X complimented him, withdrawing and hovering back away from him in mid-air, "but let's see you block this! DEMON METEOR!!!"

Daemon X instantly formed a meteor the entire size of his body in front of him, the huge rock mass brimming with the power of darkness. He shot it off like a bullet at X-Omnidramon, who split it right in half with his sword and flew at Daemon with incredible speed. Daemon was surprised but volleyed him away by slashing him with his Dark Arm Blade.

Daemon then teleported and appeared right where X-Omnidramon was sent flying, preparing to skewer him with his blade. X-Omnidramon anticipated this, however, and quickly flipped around, drawing his second sword and touching the tips of them together in Daemon's direction. The tips together began to form a point of holy energy.

"HEAVENLY SABERS!!!"

"You--!"

The holy bolt pierced straight through a surprised Daemon's stomach. He gagged out in pain as X-Omnidramon flew right into him with his sword, slashing it into his upper chest and ripping it out the top of his shoulder, drawing a rather large amount of blood from the Apostle. He then held back his armoured fist and bashed Daemon across the face with it, sending him plummeting to the ground.

"Holy shit…" Mia gasped, shielding her eyes as a cloud of dust was picked up from Daemon's impact with the ground.

Lopmon coughed out and laughed a bit, "See?! I told you he was good!"

X-Omnidramon landed with his feet on either side of Daemon's torso, holding his sword above the fallen Apostle's head with both of his hands on the hilt.

"Give up, Apostle scum?"

"Heh…" Daemon X groaned, clutching his torn shoulder in pain, "just because you anticipate my moves doesn't make you stronger than me…"

"Oh yeah? I think it's time to end your evil once and for all!" X-Omnidramon screamed, plunging the sword down into Daemon's head. But Daemon teleported out of the way at the last minute and appeared behind X-Omnidramon. He quickly held out his undamaged arm and formed another meteor with it.

"SHADOW METEOR!!!"

He struck X-Omnidramon in the back with it and sent him crashing to the ground. He stared back at Mia and glared at her, clutching his shoulder again.

"I'll be back for you, girl! You're never safe as long as the Apostles exist! And there are EIGHT of us! Muhahaha!"

Daemon X disappeared with that final threat, leaving only his spilled blood behind to signify his presence. Mia took in the threat and glared at where he was angrily.

"And I vow I'll take down every one of you until your leader shares the same fate as my father…"

X-Omnidramon had picked himself up and walked over to Mia. She glanced up at him, not quite knowing what to say to him. Luckily, he took it upon himself to talk first.

"That's an attitude I like to hear," he told her. He glanced around to make sure the coast was clear and looked down at her and her partner again, "I came searching for you as soon as my informant in the Esperanza government told me about your exile. I have a much different offer than Daemon X did for you… one that will help you get your wish and destroy SaintMachinedramon X once and for all!"

Mia's eyes widened when she heard him say that.

"Now, I like the way you said that all macho and stuff. Same with the saving my ass and everything."

"Heh, I was just showing off," X-Omnidramon said, placing his swords in their sheaths, "now come on, Mia. Walk with me, talk with me… I'm going to introduce you to a place where you can meet others just like you… and hone your skills to be the best Tamer there ever was!"

X-Omnidramon put his arm around Mia and began to lead her off in another direction and Lopmon X leapt onto her shoulder, hitching a ride. Mia's life was about to change forever… and she was about to encounter a lot of new friends… and enemies…

NEXT: Mia speaking

"The Tamer Academy?! Yeah, that's where X-Omnidramon has taken me. It's great, it's got nice dorn rooms and even a big swimming pool! But best of all are the people: like this girl Hayley, who seems to be pretty on the ball when it comes to Taming… so Lopmon X and I challenge her to a battle of course! But who is this Gabby girl… and why is she so mean to me? Her hidden agenda only begins to blossom next chapter… so don't miss it!"


	5. 4: Academy of Elites

Out in the badlands, within the uncultivated space where wild Digimon roamed and battled each other mindlessly, someone was struggling to get to the top of a fairly high butte. She was attempting to climb the craggy edges of the tall rock formation and grunting with annoyance every time her foot or hand would flip and cause her to think she was going to die today.

"I must be fucking crazy…" she muttered to herself.

Beneath her, a Digimon whom was obviously her partner was scaling the wall below her, trying to ensure her safety. But he was not just any Digimon… he was an X-Digimon. He looked pretty much like a bluish/purplish Renamon with a striped scarf, red eyes, black leather gloves with his long claws protruding from the fingertips of the gloves.

He had belts worn around his arms, legs, and black boots with the front of his feet ripping through the front of the boots, white shorts with thick dark blue stripes going down the sides. Chains hung from the belt around his waist.

The Digimon grunted as a few pebbles were kicked down onto his face by his partner's scrambling. He looked up and decided to deliver a few words of encouragement to her.

"Gabby, just don't look down, okay? I know you're tough… but we're climbing a ridiculously high butte and anyone will get a little freaked out."

The brunette clenched her eyes tightly shut and nodded in agreement. Two strands of her hair hung down on each side of her face, framing it, while the rest was done up into a bun. Her gray hoodie she was wearing hooked onto a ledge and caused her to shriek in alarm. She unhooked it and kept scaling the wall upward. She was a fairly attractive-looking girl, slender and tanned, although it was hard to tell with her hoodie on.

"I'm gonna die I'm gonna die…" she muttered to herself, still keeping her eyes closed, "and if I don't, X-Omnidramon will kill me for sneaking out of the Academy…"

"Gabby, watch your footing!" her partner, Strabimon X, called out to her from below.

She slipped and screamed and she fell downward. Luckily for her, Strabimon X reached out and caught her with his right arm, since his left arm's claw were deeply embedded into the side of the rock.

"Aaah!" she shouted as her arm was jerked by the force of being caught in mid-fall. She was then just hanging there as Strabimon held her… hanging there to think about how she had almost died.

"Are you… alright…?" her partner's curious voice asked her from above. Gabby didn't respond… she only proceeded to go into a violent flashback.

**_She could see only her own blood on the ground in front of her. She was laying on the pavement outside of her burning house… she could feel the intensity of the flames in the air, heating up the entire area. She tried to scream out in pain but it hurt so much that she couldn't._**

_**A foot kicked her in the face and she fell onto her back. Extremely weak, she could only look up to see a hazy shape. An evil-sounding voice spoke to her.**_

_**"I'll spare your life for now… you pathetic weakling. But if you don't get stronger… I will kill you. Let all of this fuel your desire to defeat me… for I expect great things of you…"**_

_**She then succumb to unconsciousness… letting the cold, rough pavement embrace her as she fell out of reality…**_

"Gabby…?" Strabimon repeated, concerned as to why she wasn't talking.

Gabby pulled herself back onto the rock wall and began to scale it again, this time with more confidence. Something in her thoughts made her desire to conquer this obstacle… if she couldn't, what good would she be able to do? Nothing… and she'd die.

With a large grunt of effort, she placed her hands on the top of the butte and hoisted herself up. She fell onto the top of it, panting for air… she could only hear Strabimon's claws digging into the wall beneath her, he'd be joining her soon.

"I… made it…" she gasped, almost letting drool fall out of her gasping mouth since she was so tired, "I… did it."

"Good for you. You're probably wondering why I picked such an elaborate meeting place," spoke another girl's voice from atop the butte. Gabby was too tired to look up at her… but it was who she'd come to see.

The other girl continued to speak.

"Well I had to talk to you now before it was too late. He's coming for us again. And this time I'm afraid we're going to die."

**Heroes Eternity, Chapter Four: Academy of Elites**

_Wow, Tamer Academy… _Mia thought to herself, _never did I even think such a place really existed. I'd heard of it… but… wow. It's just amazing. X-Omnidramon found us and brought us here… and I've never felt more awe-inspired._

Mia was gazing out the window of a suspended bridge linking two buildings together. She was staring down into a huge, massive courtyard surrounded by many sleek white buildings. In the center of the courtyard was a massive arena where Tamers could compete and fight each other.

"Pretty awesome, ain't it?" Lopmon X asked, leaping onto Mia's shoulder. The blue-haired girl nodded in agreement.

"Awesome barely begins to describe this…" Mia replied, "ever since I was little I watched my dad train with Hagurumon and I always wanted a Digimon. I always wanted to become strong like him. Now I am finally realizing that dream."

"At the cost of your life and friends, though…"

"They weren't that important anyway. Here's too a new life with just me and you, Lopmon," Mia say, holding up her palm to Lopmon. Lopmon gasped in surprise and slapped palms with her tiny one.

_I can't believe she's come around so fast… _Lopmon thought, _we may be able to achieve my goal faster than I thought…_

"Ah, there you are," the figure of X-Omnidramon spoke to her, coming around a corner and approaching her. She never got tired of staring at his shining armor and beautiful wings, he really was her hero. She couldn't believe he owned this place.

"You're pretty," Mia commented.

X-Omnidramon stuttered, obviously never having received a remark quite like that before. Lopmon just giggled as X-Omnidramon tried to compose himself again.

"AHEM! Thank you, dear," he said, "but I'm here to give you the routine tour of this place. Tamer Academy is a fairly large facility if you couldn't already tell. And we have facilities just as updated as that fancy army you were working in."

"Why is that?" Mia wondered.

"Because we work in conjunction with them," he explained, "all of our graduates are enlisted into the army. In exchange, we're funded by the Esperanza government."

"But… I have an X-Digimon… so if I graduate…"

X-Omnidramon seemed to smirk. Only his eyes could be seen behind his face-mask but Mia could tell he was smirking anyway. "Oh don't worry. Even better things are in store for those of you with X-Digimon."

"There's more than me?"

"Yes, we have three of you here now. You'll undoubtedly meet the other two soon enough. We do our best to rescue every exiled Tamer and bring them here for training. Unfortunately… other organizations sometime get to them first."

"Like… the Apostles…" Mia muttered, remembering her previous encounter with Daemon X, "or… wait, someone else tried to get me to join them too."

"Oh?"

"Yeah it was… this guy Lance and his Tentomon X…" Mia tried to remember, "I can't remember what they called themselves…"

"The Radical Dreamers," Lopmon X chirped in. Mia smiled and nodded. X-Omnidramon glanced down at them as they began to walk through the halls.

"Ah yes… those rebels," X-Omnidramon said, apparently knowing about them, "they're not necessarily bad people. They are trying to stop the war. But their ways of going about it are all wrong."

"Yeah… they attack both sides," Mia remembered.

"Indeed. The Radical Dreamers were actually founded by an old friend of mine… we disagreed on how to run Tamer Academy so he went off with his own ideas. He also has three X-Digimon Tamers in his care, I believe."

"Yeah. That Lance bitch was actually trying to kidnap me."

"Do not worry too much about them. They don't really have anything against the Tamer Academy. Our real worries are the Apostles. They always want to corrupt new X-Tamers into their own followers," X-Omnidramon spoke with a grim tone, "our defenses here are very high… but this place does become a target for them now and then."

"Then what?"

"Well, you'll see how we get rid of them," X-Omidramon said, and Mia could tell he was smirking again. "Alright, now here you'll see the infirmary… Nuriamon is the nurse should you ever need to see her. The cafeteria is up ahead and after that I'll show you to your dorm room…"

As X-Omnidramon trailed off, Mia began to smile and think to herself. She couldn't stop thinking about Lance and how she totally owned him before. She was really looking forward to a scrap with him and his Radical Dreamers crew. If only she knew where to find one of them…

"Ciara. I knew this is where I'd find you, you Radical Dreamer reject," Gabby spoke in a condescending tone to the girl standing on the other side of the high butte along with her. Strabimon X stood at her side.

"Duh, because this is where I told you to meet me," the girl indicated as Ciara responded, not affected by the insult, "we don't have time to be cute, Gabriella."

Gabby glared at her. Ciara calling her by her full name annoyed her… and that was exactly why she did it. She decided not even comment on it because that would just give her satisfaction.

This Ciara was definitely a looker. She had a very sexy, curvy form that she didn't hesitate to show off in a white sleeveless dress that had a long v-neck to show her white tube top underneath and expose most of her breasts. She wore a small black sash wrapped around her waist and the dress was split up the front to show her belly button. She was also wearing tight black pants as well as black army boots.

She crossed her arms, which were covered by black gloves going halfway up her arms as her own Digimon partner bounded from the side of the cliff overtop her and landed on the ground before her, facing Gabby and Strabimon X. This beautiful fox Digimon had a white blaze up her lavender nose. She wiggled her black-tipped ears as her lion-like tail flapped around behind her excitedly.

"So… what were you saying?" Gabby wondered, "he's coming back?"

Ciara smirked again, strands of her black hair waving elegantly in the wind. Her hair was done up in a messy ponytail (like Sheena from Tales) and only served to compliment her beauty. Gabby kind of hated her for looking so hot all the time because she felt trying to look good was a waste of time. Things like that would only distract her from her training.

"What I'm saying…" Ciara began, playfully running her tongue along her red lips, "is that you're too weak to be of any use! Kovimon X, take bitchface down!"

"You got it!" Kovimon X, the fox, shouted while bounding in the air directly at Gabby with her claws out, "TWIN-KOVI CLAW!!!"

"Look out!" Strabimon X shouted, leaping upward at Kovimon to counter her, "LICHT NAGEL!!!"

The two of them slashed at each other with their claws and both dodged elegantly. They landed on the top of the butte, both waiting for the call to attack again. Kovimon snarled at Strabimon.

"Loser," Kovimon growled.

"Birth defect," Strabimon growled back, just itching to fight Kovimon some more.

Gabby grunted. This is how people would always do things with her. Attacking her. She balled her fists and screamed at Ciara, "I am ten times better than you! Strabimon, rip her mouthy Digimon apart!!!"

"Now you're talking like the Gabby I know," he said, jumping back and then bounding forward at his opponent, "LICHT BEIN!!!"

He struck her with a mighty kick that sent her skidding across the ground on her side. The fox seemed to have good equilibrium and managed to pick herself up onto her four legs before she even came to a halt. She leapt into the air again at Strabimon.

"FOX FLAME INFERNO!!!" she screamed, firing a powerful cold-blue flame from her mouth at Strabimon, who leapt into the air to avoid it. She anticipated this and bounded off the ground as she landed, using the force to propel herself back up again at the still-airborne Strabimon. She bit into his scarf and jerked her neck downward, sending him flying toward the ground hard.

"Strabimon!" Gabby cried out in worry, holding out her D-Volver and pressing a button on it, "get stronger!"

Strabimon absorbed the stamina Gabby gave to him and used his newfound energy to land on his two legs easily. He then copied her by propelling himself back into the air at her! He held back his claw, ready to deliver a powerful slash!

"Oh don't act like that trick is original!" Ciara countered, holding up her own D-Volver at Kovimon, "steroid time! Agh!"

Ciara fell to her knees as she shared stamina with Kovimon, who began to shine with a blue aura, ready for the impact of Strabimon's attack. Gabby grunted and held her D-Volver at Strabimon again.

"Take more! Yaaa!" she screamed, thrusting her arm up and sending another stream of her energy into her partner's attack. Gabby fell to her knees as well and dropped her D-Volver, incredibly weakened now.

The two airborne Digimon collided in mid-air, sending a flurry of claws and kicks at each other with their powered up states intact. Eventually when the grapple was finished, they both crashed to the ground with a thud… knocking each other out.

Gabby stared at the knocked out Strabimon and Kovimon, both of whom were breathing heavily. She sighed in annoyance, "Well then…"

"That was fun. But you know the real reason I called you up here wasn't to fight," Ciara stated, bringing herself back to her feet and twirling a stray strand of black hair around her finger, "I got one of those threats again."

"So did I," Gabby said, pulling herself to her feet too and trying to recover from giving her stamina to Strabimon, "but… how does this keep happening? And why us…?"

"Couldn't tell you," Ciara said, turning away from Gabby, "though if I were you, I'd fill your big buddy X-Omnidramon in on it. He can deal with the Apostles better than we can."

"No… I don't want to tell anyone about it…"

"Suit yourself, short stuff. But we're both where we're not supposed to be right now. So I'm leaving… we'll have a real battle another day."

Gabby grunted angrily. Something bad was about go go down on her and Ciara… and she barely even knew what. She could barely stand Ciara, especially when she called her short, but she was the only other person involved.

Then another thought dawned upon her.

"… how are we getting down, anyway?"

Ciara froze and kept her back turned to Gabby. She stared down off the edge of the butte and sweat-dropped.

"You know… I don't know…"

Later that night, Mia flopped down on the bed within her dorm-room. She'd just had a rather lengthy shower and was wearing fairly skimpy a pink silk nightgown that was only cut down to her thighs. Her bed was huge and felt like it had at least three comforters on it. She was definitely diving straight into heaven with how things were set up here.

"This place is perfect."

"You sure?" Lopmon X asked, sitting on Mia's dresser of all places, "you had to take clothes out of their store. The only nightgown you could find was that skanky one."

"Meh, no one's going to see me anyway," Mia proclaimed, still absorbing the softness of her big bed, "I swear this is the best thing to happen to me in a long time. I owe X-Omnidramon big!"

"Yeah… odd seeing him running a Tamer Academy. He seems too tough for that kind of thing, if you know what I mean," Lopmon said, "also seems odder that he takes in X-Tamer pupils… especially if he's funded by the Esperanza government."

"Oh quit nitpicking," Mia said, sitting up and facing her little partner, "maybe we're, like, the next big thing and we're going to save the world!"

"Okay, now you're talking like an idiot."

"X-Omnidramon is so cool though, isn't he?" Mia asked, falling on her back again, "I wish we could've talked to him more."

"Do you have a CRUSH on X-Omnidramon?" Lopmon asked, skeptically.

"What!? No. I really liked that Serph though… I kinda hope he gets exiled too and then he comes here. And then he'll be like 'Mia, I missed you with every passing second, our love can only grow deeper!' And then we'll make out for several hours."

Lopmon X just stared at her overenthusiastic partner, "Okay then. Good luck with that…"

"I'm cold," Mia stated, wrapping her arms around herself.

"Then get under the covers."

"That would require moving…"

Suddenly they heard a knock on the door. Both of them stood up and looked at it with alarm.

"Who the hell could that be?" Lopmon wondered.

"If whoever it is says they're something that even RHYMES with 'Radical Dreamer' or 'Apostle' I swear to god I'll--"

Mia opened the door and peered out from behind it, as she didn't feel like letting whoever her guest was to know she was almost naked. But what she saw surprised her…

There were a whole bunch of other students and all of their Digimon too. There had to be over thirty of them crammed into the hallway. They all looked at her and she smiled nervously.

"Uhh… can I help-- aah!!"

Mia was suddenly snatched up by them as they all began to jabber at once and shout things. Lopmon tried to jump in to help but there were so many of them she lost track of Mia almost instantly.

"Mia!! What the hell do you guys want with her?!" she shouted at the crowd, but they were now chanting so loudly they couldn't even hear her. They began to march off with Mia however, much to Lopmon's frustration.

"What the hell?!?"

"It's the hazing process," one boy who hung back told Lopmon, "they're going to haze Mia to see if she's worthy of being in the Academy."

"X-Omnidramon didn't tell us about this…"

"X-Omnidramon doesn't know. But this happens to every new Tamer… so grab your partner's D-Volver and come on. You're going to have to fight!"

The boy ran off to join the rest of the group and Lopmon looked over at Mia's D-Volver sitting on her bedside table, "I'm too tired for this…"

Mia was carried down out of the dorms and across the courtyard. She stared in disbelief when she saw that a couple dozen other kids and their Digimon were all waiting around the arena. There was gonna be no running away from this. Once she figured out what was going on, she wasn't too freaked out.

"Whoever is touching my butt is gonna get a punch in the head!" she shouted downward, threateningly.

Suddenly she was hurled forward onto one side of the arena. The ground was made of some smooth white rock… and it was tiled all the way across. She glanced around at all the cheering kids and attempted to cover up her cleavage with one arm while pushing herself up with the other.

"Okay, seriously… what does this hazing consist of…?" she muttered to herself, "cuz if dragging me out here in my nightie and putting me on display…"

"You better be quiet until we tell you that you can speak, newbie," another girl spoke, stepping up onto the stage, "so, who's gonna challenge this unworthy one?!"

"I really don't believe this…" Mia groaned, slapping her palm against her forehead, "this is not the best way to make a good first impression on someone…"

"We all went through it! Don't try to wussy out!" a voice shouted from behind her.

"This new chick is hot!"

"Guys, stop stomping around! I dropped my contract lens!"

"Who's going to fight her anyway?!"

Mia listened to all the random chatter and decided to block it out and glanced back at the girl standing in front of her, "Alright, so who do I have to fight to prove myself to you!?"

"Usually someone volunteers… but you have an X-Digimon, so…"

"I'll fight her!" a female voice shouted.

Another girl ran over and gracefully leapt into the arena opposite of Mia. She had short brown hair down to her shoulders and brown eyes. She stayed in a crouched position, surveying Mia from her point of view. She was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt with a pink t-shirt overtop of it. She was also wearing jeans and a black-studded belt.

Mia crossed her arms over her chest and Lopmon X ran and leapt into the arena next to her. She glanced down at her partner, "About time you showed up."

"Sooooooorrrrry. Jeez," Lopmon groaned, tossing Mia her D-Volver, "put some clothes on."

Mia grabbed a yellow jacket right off the girl who was standing near her explaining the challenge to her. She swung it on and did it up quickly.

"Hey, that's mine-- aah!"

Mia simply pushed her off the arena and faced off against her new opponent. She looked down at the brunette, "No offense but that little stance doesn't make you look cool."

"Hah," her opponent laughed, standing up, "you may think you're high and mighty because you have an X-Digimon but you're not the only one."

"Oh yeah? I don't even SEE your X-Digimon, Miss… uhm…"

"My name is Hayley Cain. And maybe you should look up for the answer!!" the girl shouted, extending her arm into the air and pointing.

Mia and Lopmon glanced up and a huge dragon came soaring down from the dark sky into the lighted up area of the arena. It was a large, dangerous-looking black dragon Digimon. It stood on its' two feet and lacked any arms. It was still scary enough to send chills down Mia and Lopmon's spines though.

"THAT'S your Digimon!? It's the biggest Rookie I've ever seen…" Mia gasped, "I mean… and scary looking too… and I can smell his breath from here!"

The dragon snorted at her and Hayley gave Mia a look as if to indicate she were an idiot, "Okay, now my buddy Drachemon here is a Champion level Digimon. And don't let his name fool you, he IS an X-Digimon."

The audience began to cheer for Hayley and her Drachemon, which made the two of them beam with pride. Mia and Lopmon X both sweat-dropped… they weren't really impressed at all.

"How is it an X-Digimon without X in its' name…?" Mia wondered.

"Beats the crap out of me…" Lopmon sighed, "so are we gonna fight or stand here and look pretty?"

"That might be hard for Hayley's Digimon…"

Hayley laughed and held up her D-Volver, "Time to start the match! Drachemon, let's see how much fun it'll be to fight this X-Tamer, shall we?!"

"Heh heh…" Drachemon chuckled, spouting some flame in his mouth and rearing his head back, "fine by me! FLAME FROM HELL!!!"

He released a giant burst of flame at Lopmon, who leapt above it. Mia stepped back from the force of the blast, her hair waving wildly as the explosion subsided in front of her.

"Well he's subtle…" Mia muttered, holding up her D-Volver and pointing it at Lopmon X, whom was still in mid-air, "Lopmon, let's go to town! Digivolution time!"

"I'm on it!" the bunny Digimon agreed, beginning to shine brightly. Hayley, Drachemon, and all the spectators glanced up at her in awe.

**"LOPMON X DIGIVOLVE TO…"**

**Lopmon's tiny form expanded into one that stood almost shoulder-length tall to an average human. Her long ears still draped all the way down her back and she was wearing something of a feminine dojo uniform. Folded upwards from her knuckles were two huge iron claws that she could snap into place and use to slash enemies. She twirled around and struck a pose, settling into her Champion form.**

**"TURUIEMON X!!!"**

Turuiemon X somersaulted in the air before dropping down straight at Drachemon and kicking him across the head! The dragon roared out and try to turn and look at Turuiemon… but she was gone already before she even hit the ground!

"Where did she go!?" Drachemon exclaimed in his deep growling voice.

Hayley leapt backward out of the ring to avoid the battle and glanced up at Drachemon, "That little bitch is fast! … Drachemon, she's on your back!"

"What!?"

"GAUNTLET CLAW!!!" Turuiemon X screamed, diving forward and slashing the Drachemon across the face, "there's only one way to take you big brute types down! Multiple hits to the head!"

"Grrr…. Graaaah!!" Drachemon roared at her, "you're an insolent little creature!"

Drachemon regained his balance and Turuiemon landed in front of him in a ready stance, waiting for him to make a move. He glared down at her and prepared to attack again.

_Wait for it… _Turuiemon thought, _the second he makes his little fireball, I'll dive right through it and knock him out for good. Mia will hopefully back me up with a stamina charge._

She glanced back at Mia in the yellow jacket quickly and Mia nodded, gripping her D-Volver tightly. Hayley, on the other hand, wouldn't stop smirking.

_She's up to something… _Mia thought, as Drachemon charged up his attack, "Turuiemon!!! Dodge instead!"

"Huh!?" Turuiemon exclaimed, glancing back at Mia in surprise.

"DRACHE ACID!!!" Drachemon screamed, firing off a large spit of acid at Turuiemon. She screamed and barely dodged out of the way, the acid even melted off the ends of her dojo uniform!

"You could really hurt someone with that melting puke of yours!" Turuiemon exclaimed. She then looked around and saw all the audience staring with anticipation at who would win. She decided it was time to put this guy in his place.

"Mia!" she shouted.

"Right!" Mia agreed, "sorry Hayley but we're the hot new team on the block now! Stamina transfer!!!"

Mia pressed down on her D-Volver and began to charge her energy into Turuiemon X until she began to feel a little dizzy. Hayley grunted and looked down at her D-Volver in annoyance.

_Ugh! _she thought, almost screaming in annoyance, _this chick can do Stamina Transfer too! Why can't I do it!? Drachemon and I don't have good enough synchronization…_

"Hayley…" Drachemon began with some worry.

"Drachemon! She hasn't won yet! Blast her quickly while she powers up!" Hayley cheered out, "get her!!!"

"FLAME FROM--"

"Too late, ugly!" Turuiemon yelled out, already having leapt straight into Drachemon's face with her enhanced speed, "GAUNTLET CLAW!!!"

She bashed Drachemon across the head and send him sliding across the tiled arena and crashing onto the terrain beside it.

"He's down! Now carve his tail for goods!" Mia shouted out.

Turuiemon looked back at Mia oddly, "… no…"

The girl from previously, holding her arms around herself for warmth, leapt up and held up Mia's arm in triumph.

"And the victory goes to newcomers Mia and Lopmon X!!!"

"Yes!" Mia exclaimed, leaping into the air and catching Lopmon X in her arms, "we totally owned your stupid trial! Are we the strongest X-Tamers or what?"

"No… you aren't," Hayley said, walking over to them, "there is someone way tougher than me… and probably tougher than you also."

"Who?" Mia exclaimed, really getting into this now, "I'll take her on!"

"Excuse me, can I have my coat--"

Hayley interrupted the girl before she could finish, "Yeah, her name is Gabby… she's ridiculously fierce on the battlefield. But that was a fun match… I'm Hayley Cain!"

The brunette extended her hand and Mia smirked and took it.

"Mia Ausa. Nice to meet you. I think I'm going to like it here…"

"Haha. Yeah it's fun… so where's your dorm at…?"

Mia and Hayley began to walk off, with Lopmon X in tow. Drachemon simply took off into the sky again… and Mia wondered with a partner that big, how he and Hayley ever spent time together. No wonder they couldn't do Stamina Transfer.

"Hey! Seriously, my coat!!!" the other girl exclaimed, running after them in desperation. All the other students began to disperse… but near the back of the courtyard and shielded from the lights and hidden among the shrubbery… Gabby was leaning against the wall, apparently having watched the whole thing.

_Someone who can take down Hayley just like that, eh? She looks rather pathetic… but still, _Gabby thought, turning to leave, _it's going to be a lot more interesting having two fellow X-Digimon to beat up on instead of one._

Gabby chuckled a little bit and returned inside. She planned to meet up with Mia soon, then she was going to really piss her off and get some real good training out of her…or else she might not survive much longer…

NEXT TIME-

MIA: "Hayley knows Serph?! Apparently my new friend does… and I get a chance to chat with his royal self over e-mail!

But the chapter is hardly about me… we Lance again as well as his Radical Dreamer buddies: Ciara and Ray! God the two of them both like Ciara… it's a little frightening when they fight over her. But the rebel squad is dispatched to take out a crucial base belonging to the Apostles… too bad it's run by a fairly dangerous Mega- level Apostle as well…DemonIcemon X!

Is this going to go over well? … don't ask me, I'm not even there!"


End file.
